Bangladesh to spend $254mn on February general elections

The February vote will cost $82 million more than the last election two years ago

The cost of conducting the parliamentary polls, scheduled for next month, has been estimated at $254 million—nearly $82 million more than the last election held two years ago.

Nearly 130 million voters are expected to exercise their franchise in the election to be held on Feb 12. Enabling the people to cast their votes will require 43,000 polling centres and approximately 250,000 polling booths.

These booths will include secret ballot marking places. Expenses have also been increased for arranging IT-supported postal voting.

The election will also require the services of 69 returning officers, 600 assistant returning officers, and 2,000 more individuals, including executive and judicial magistrates, as well as members of the election inquiry committees.

Around 800,000 polling officers will be deployed, along with about 950,000 members of law-enforcing agencies.

From preparing the voter lists to publishing the results, the massive electoral operation cost has been allocated to be disbursed in phases.

When asked, Election Commission Secretary Akhtar Ahmed said the total expenditure will be finalised combining election management and law and order costs.

Initially nearly $172 million had been set aside for the election. But the EC had sought to extend the allocation by nearly $82 million in January. The finance ministry approved the allocation.

Officials of the Election Management Wing of the EC Secretariat said on Wednesday $98 million has been earmarked for election management, while $123 million will be spent on law and order.

An additional $41 million has been set aside for other areas, including OCV, ICPV, and the referendum.

The EC officials said the total expenditure may vary.

The parliamentary polls will see 51 political parties take part, with 1,738 candidates. There are 256 independent candidates in the election.

A total of 55,454 observers from 81 nationally registered organisations will be on duty. In addition, there will be around 500 foreign observers.

Law and order will be maintained by 943,050 members of various security forces.