Voting begins in sixth Upazila Parishad election

As many as 139 Upazilas will cast their ballots in the first phase of the local government elections

The sixth Upazila Parishad election, in which voters choose local government representatives, has kicked off with polls opening in 139 Upazilas.

The Election Commission’s biggest challenges for the polls are to ensure good voter turnout and maintain law and order.

EC officials said voting kicked off at 8am, as per the schedule, in 11,556 poll centres and will continue until 4pm without any break.

Some contestants in Gazipur and other districts were worried as early voter turnout seemed low due to rain.

More than 31.4 million voters can cast their ballots in the first phase of the election to choose public representatives for the posts of chairmen, vice chairmen and women vice chairmen from 1,619 contestants.

Electronic voting machines or EVM will be used for voting in 22 Upazilas while traditional paper ballots are used in other Upazilas.

The paper ballots were sent to the 424 poll centres in remote areas on Tuesday. They were sent to the other 11,132 centres on Wednesday morning. The government announced a public holiday in the constituencies holding the vote.

The Upazila election is typically held within four months of the 12th parliamentary election. The Election Commission took ‘all necessary preparations’ to have a free and fair election, said Chief Election Commissioner Kazi Habibul Awal. They were trying their best to ‘prevent any influence on the voting,’ he said.

To allow for a ‘competitive’ election, the ruling party Awami League did not nominate any candidate or allow their party symbol to be used by any of those running. Hence, Awami League leaders vying for the Upazila posts are running as independent candidates.

The BNP has been adamant about boycotting the Upazila polls, as it did the national election. At least 80 leaders of the party, however, are contesting the election as independent candidates. Many of them have since been expelled for going against the party’s decision.

Jatiya Party, the main opposition party in the parliament, allowed their nominees to use party symbol in the first phase of Upazila election, but have fielded only four contestants. Besides those four, another two JP members, and one each from the Workers Party and Jatiya Somajtantrik Dal (JSD) are contesting the election.

Under the circumstances, it was hard to determine the turnout, said Abdul Alim, former director of the Election Working Group, a platform of election observers.

“The Awami League does not have formal party candidates in the election. In that way, they have boycotted the election as a political party. But their members are contesting the election as independent candidates, which means the Awami League is competing against itself. Hence, a group of people wouldn’t go to the poll centres. The turnout may drop from what it was in 2014 or 2019,” he said.

In 2014, the Upazila Parishad election saw a 61 percent turnout. In 2019, the rate was more than 41 percent.

• A total of 1,619 candidates are contesting the first phase of the Upazila Parishad election with 565 of them vying for the chairman posts, 619 for vice chairman and 435 for women vice chairman posts

• At least 28 of them, including 8 chairmen, 10 vice chairmen and 10 women vice chairmen were elected uncontested

• More than 31.4 million voters can cast their ballots at 81,804 polling booths in 11,556 voting centres in 139 Upazilas

• Among them, more than 16 million are male voters and 15.4 million are female voters, while 188 are third gender voters.

As many as 17 law enforcement personnel were deployed in each general polling centre and 18-19 personnel were assigned to centres flagged as important. The centres in the hill tracts and remote areas have 19-21 law enforcers deployed at each centre.

Authorities have deployed 418 platoons of the Border Guard Bangladesh during the first phase of the Upazila Parishad with two to four platoons in each Upazila.

At the same time, 159,874 Ansar-Village Defence Party personnel have been deployed across the country to maintain order during voting and to ensure the security of the ballot boxes.

The Coast Guard will act as a mobile and strike force in the electoral areas of the coastal region, while Ansar Battalions will be the mobile and striking forces in the voting constituencies for five days – on election day and two days before and after the polls.

Taxi cabs, microbuses, pick-up trucks, launches, engine boats (apart from the ones running on specific routes) and other transports were barred from running in the voting constituencies from 12am on Wednesday to 12am on Thursday.

In the meantime, motorcycles were banned in the voting constituencies and the ban will be effective until 12am on Friday.

The Ministry of Home Affairs issued an order banning people with licensed firearms from carrying or exhibiting their firearms for seven days before and after election day.