Army personnel will remain deployed across the country for eight days from January 3, 2024 to January 10 to help maintain law and order for the 12th Jatiya Sangsad (JS) election slated for January 7, 2024.
This step proves that the Election Commission (EC) and the government are very sincere to hold a free, fair and peaceful election.
The troops will perform duties till January 10, according to a letter of the Armed Forces Division issued on Tuesday.
The letter reads: Considering the Election Commission's request for conducting the 12th JS polls in a free, fair, impartial and peaceful manner, support will be extended to the local civil administration under the "In Aid to the Civil Power" initiative in all 300 constituencies of Bangladesh from January 3 to January 10.
The army personnel will be stationed at pivotal and convenient locations in each district, upazila, and metropolitan area. Their deployment in these regions will be coordinated with the returning officer, ensuring collaboration with the district/upazila/police station authorities. According to the letter, a coordination cell will commence operations in the Armed Forces Division starting from 29 December. The force will set up and operate coordination cells as required in different locations.
Earlier on December 17, President Mohammed Shahabuddin approved the deployment of the Bangladesh Army to bolster security and uphold law and order during the JS polls.
It may be mentioned that during the 11th JS polls in 2018, a total of 414 army platoons, each comprising 30 personnel, were deployed in 389 upazilas across the country. Additionally, 48 navy platoons were deployed in 18 upazilas during that time.
During the 10th JS polls held on January 5 in 2014, approximately 50,000 armed forces personnel were deployed across the country from December 26 to January 9 to ensure security during the parliamentary elections.
According to the EC official sources, alongside the deployment of AFD personnel, over 7.5 lakh personnel from different law-enforcement and security agencies will be engaged in view of holding the JS polls in a free, fair and peaceful manner.
Of them, 1,82,091 will be deployed from the Bangladesh Police and Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), 46,876 from the Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB), 5,16,000 from the Ansar and VDP, and 2,350 from the Coast Guard.
Besides, 300 Judicial Enquiry Committees have been working on the field to maintain the electoral code of conduct while 802 executive magistrates will remain active for mobile court operations.
The EC official sources said, the number of total polling centres is 42,103 and total members of voters is 11,96,81,633. Of the total voters, 6,07,71,000 are males, 5,89,19,202 are females and 825 are trans-genders.
Besides, a total of 9,09,529 officials and employees are going to be engaged in the polls duty. Of them 4,06,364 are presiding officers, 2,87,722 assistant presiding officers and 5,75,443 polling officers.
Over 1,800 candidates from at least 28 political parties and a large number of independent candidates are contesting the polls in 300 seats across the country.
