Decision on deploying army for polls not now, says CEC Huda

A day after an election commissioner said they were up for mobilising the army in the next general election, Chief Election Commissioner KM Nurul Huda says the time to take a call on it has not arrived.

"Troops have been deployed in past elections, but the decision for the eleventh national election will be taken later," he told bdnews24.com on Tuesday.

He said any decision on this issue has not been taken for the polls, which is due between late 2018 and early 2019.

On Monday, Commissioner Mahbub Talukdar said they were ready to deploy troops, a day after BNP chief Khaleda Zia demanded troops be mobilised with magistracy power.

“We, including the chief election commissioner, feel that the army should be deployed... Time will say how the army will be mobilised but we will never say that troops will not be deployed,” he said while speaking to the media.

Chief Election Commissioner Huda, however, described it as his 'personal opinion'.

"We are yet to make a decision about it. It can't be said now whether troops will be deployed or not. We will take a call after watching the pre-election scenario," he said.