Sipu Jha
Bangladesh is set to hold parliamentary elections on Thursday, the first national vote since the ouster of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in mass protests in August 2024. Authorities have rolled out unprecedented security measures, with more than half of the country’s polling centres identified as “risk-prone.”According to police assessments, nearly 24,000 of the approximately 43,000 polling stations across the country have been categorised as “high” or “moderate” risk. In Dhaka alone, 1,614 out of 2,131 polling centres have been marked risk-prone. However, the army has said it identified only two centres in the capital as “risky.”
The Election Commission (EC) said its security deployment strategy is based on local sensitivity and threat assessments.“Security deployment is being made based on local sensitivity assessments,” Election Commissioner Abul Fazal Mohammad Sanaullah said at a media briefing.
Record security and tech deployment
Officials described the upcoming polls as witnessing the largest-ever deployment of law enforcement personnel in Bangladesh’s electoral history. Nearly 9.58 lakh security personnel have been deployed nationwide.Inspector General of Police Baharul Alam said over 1.57 lakh police personnel will be directly engaged in election duties, supported by nearly 30,000 additional police staff from stations across the country.For the first time, authorities are deploying unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), drones and body-worn cameras to monitor the process.“Additionally, for the first time, UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles), drones, and body-worn cameras are being used for election security,” said Sanaullah.Around 25,000 body-worn cameras will be used in the field, while CCTV cameras have been installed in more than 90 per cent of polling centres to ensure continuous surveillance.
Voting across 299 seats
Voting will take place from 7.30 am to 4.30 pm across 299 constituencies, with polling in Sherpur-3 postponed following the death of a candidate. A total of 42,659 polling centres have been set up.More than 12.77 crore voters are eligible to cast their ballots, including about 3.58 per cent first-time voters. Alongside the parliamentary elections, citizens will also vote in a referendum on an 84-point reform package.The Election Commission has deployed 2,098 executive magistrates and 657 judicial magistrates to oversee the process.Sanaullah said the EC was satisfied with the law-and-order situation and expressed hope that law enforcement agencies would ensure a peaceful environment during and after voting.
Political backdrop
The elections come 18 months after Hasina’s Awami League government was removed following a student-led uprising on August 5, 2024. The interim administration led by Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus subsequently disbanded the Awami League and barred it from contesting.The main contest is between the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and Jamaat-e-Islami. Pre-poll surveys have indicated that the BNP is the frontrunner, with its chairman Tarique Rahman emerging as a leading contender for the top post.With heightened surveillance, large-scale security deployment and advanced monitoring systems in place, Bangladesh heads into a closely watched election seen as a critical test of its political transition after the Hasina era.
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