Polls to 117 upazila parishads Sunday

Staff Correspondent: Elections to 117 upazila parishads will be held on Sunday in the third phase of the local body polls.

Some  247,53,148 voters will be able to exercise their voting rights under 10,018 polling stations in the balloting that is set to begin at 8am and continue till 4pm without any break.

In the 117 upazilas, some 358 chairman, 604 vice-chairman and 414 woman vice-chairman candidates are contesting the elections.

Though the Election Commission earlier announced the election schedule for 127 upazilas of 25 districts, the balloting will not be held in 10 upazilas in the third phase on various grounds.

Six upazilas where all candidates have already been elected unopposed don’t require the balloting, while polls to two other upazilas were postponed following a court order and the election to the remaining two upazilas shifted to the fourth phase.

The EC has withdrawn three Upazila Nirbahi Officers and nine officers-in-charge (OCs) of police stations from the duty of the third phase polls, he said.

Besides, the Commission served warning notices to several MPs over violation of the election code, he added.

A large number of security members, including police, Rab, BGB and Coast Guard, have been deployed in the election areas since Friday. They are slated to remain so till Tuesday.

Additional BGB members were deployed in some upazilas amid the risk of irregularities and deterioration of the law and order in this phase, Helaluddin said.

Besides, at least one judicial magistrate was deployed in each upazila and an executive magistrate for every three union parishads for five days to punish any violations of the polls code.

A security team comprising of 14-16 members drawn from police, Ansar and VDP will guard each polling station on the day.

The Public Administration announced a public holiday in the 117 upazilas for Sunday.

The 5th upazila election will be completed in five phases holding polls to some 480 upazilas out of the country's 492 ones. The EC has so far announced the election schedule for the first four phases.

The first phase and second phase elections were held on March 10 and 18 respectively, while the fourth phase polls are scheduled to be held on March 31.


risingbd/Dhaka/Mar 23, 2019/Hasibul/AI