Bangladesh classifies nearly 25,000 polling centres as ‘risky’ for general election

Police at these centres will be equipped with body cameras, the home advisor says

The government has identified more than 25,000 polling centres as "risky" ahead of the general election.

The development was revealed by Home Advisor Jahangir Alam Chowdhury after an advisor-level meeting on law and order on Monday.

He said, "This time, there will be 42,761 polling stations. Of these, 8,780 are very important and 16,548 are important."

The number of ordinary polling centres stands at 17,433.

Asked what he meant by “important”, the advisor said he meant they were “risky”.

Jahangir said that about 900,000 law enforcers will be deployed for the elections.

This will consist of 100,000 Army personnel, 149,443 police, 576,314 Ansar and VDP members, as well as the Air Force and the Navy, he said.

"Police at risky or very risky polling centres will be equipped with 25,000 body cameras. In addition, there will be CCTV cameras in each polling station."

The parliamentary polls and referendum are scheduled to be held simultaneously on Feb 12.

Law enforcers will be deployed on election duties for a total of seven days from Feb 8 to 14.

The law enforcers will also use drones in the election. There will be 418 drones deployed to watch over polling centres.