The voting for the Rangpur City Corporation (RpCC) Elections-2022 will be held on Tuesday amid tight security measures in a festive atmosphere as the authorities concerned have completed all necessary preparations.
The third elections to the city corporation will be held at all 1,349 booths of a total of 229 polling centres using electronic voting machines (EVMs) from 8:30 am to 4:30 pm, according to BSS.
As many as 4,26,470 voters -- including 2,12,302 males, 2,14,167 females and a voter from the transgender community -- will apply their voting rights in the elections.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Public Administration in a notification on Monday declared a public holiday for Tuesday in the electoral area of the city corporation as sought by the election commission to enable every voter in casting their votes.
Common voters are expecting a triangular contest among mayoral post candidates Hosne Ara Lutfa Dalia (Boat) of Awami League, Md. Mostafizar Rahman (Plough) of Jatiya Party and independent candidate Latifur Rahman (Elephant).
The six other mayoral post candidates are Md. Amiruzzaman of Islami Andolan Bangladesh (Hand fan), Md. Abu Raihan of Bangladesh Congress (Green coconut), Md. Tauhidur Rahman Mondal of Khelafat Majlish (Wall clock), Md. Shafiar Rahman of Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal- JASOD (Moshal), Md. Mehedi Hasan (Independent-Deer) and Md. Khorshed Alam of Zaker Party (Rose flower).
A total of 260 candidates, including nine for mayoral, 183 for 33 general councillors' and 68 for 11 reserved female councillors' posts, are contesting in the RpCC Elections-2022 and their hectic last-moment electioneering ended last night.
Meanwhile, Rangpur Metropolitan Police Commissioner Nure Alam Mina and Returning Officer (RO) for RpCC Elections-2022 Md. Abdul Baten in a special press briefing on Monday informed journalists that six-tier security measures have been taken for the peaceful holding of RpCC polls amid a complete security blanket.
They also gave necessary directions to the election officials and members of security forces for properly holding the RpCC polls before their departure with EVMs and other election materials to the polling centres this afternoon.
The RO said all 229 presiding officers, 1,349 assistant presiding officers and 2,698 polling officers with EVMs and other election inputs and security forces already reached polling centres on Monday.
Polling will begin at 8:30 am on Tuesday in all 2,698 polling booths of 229 polling centres under all 33 wards and continue till 4:30 pm uninterruptedly and counting of votes will start subsequently at District Shilpakala Academy auditorium in the city.
An adequate number of members of law enforcement agencies including police, Ansar-VDP, APBN, Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) and Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) have been deployed for holding the RpCC-2022 polls peacefully amid tight security blankets.
Thirty-three roving teams, 11 striking force teams and six reserved striking force teams comprising Police, APBN and Battalion Ansar and VDP, 17 teams of RAB and 11 more teams of BGB will remain on duty during the RpCC polls.
"Fifteen security forces including five armed personnel will patrol at each of the 133 normal polling centres while 16 security personnel with six armed personnel will be deployed at each of the other 86 important polling centres," the RO said.
Besides, 33 executive magistrates started leading 33 mobile courts and 16 judicial magistrates leading 16 summary courts to conduct trials for violation of election rules from yesterday and will continue to work till December 29 next.
The striking forces will instantly intervene in any untoward incident and summary courts will conduct trials for breaking election rules and members of the law enforcement agencies will be on duty round the clock in the important polling centres.
In addition, plain cloth security personnel of RAB, police and intelligence will remain on duty to ensure the maximum degree of security for holding RpCC polls peacefully.
"Every polling station will be covered by CCTV cameras and the RpCC-2022 elections will be monitored from both Dhaka and Rangpur with CCTV cameras. If any problem is noticed, steps will be taken immediately," the RO added.
