The Election Commission (EC) has completed all preparations, including security measures, to hold the Rangpur City Corporation (RCC) election today in a free and fair manner. For the first time, the poll to Rangpur City Corporation will be arranged under the party banner.

“The situation is under control to hold fair polls in a peaceful environment,” chief election commissioner (CEC) KM Nurul Huda said at a press conference at the Election Commission Secretariat in the capital yesterday. A total of seven mayoral candidates are contesting the polls, while 211 councillor candidates will contest for the 33 general wards and 65 women candidates for the 11 reserved seats.

A total of 393,894 voters—1,96,256 men and 1,97,638 women—are expected to cast their votes at 1,178 booths in 193 polling stations. As many as 3,559 elections officials will conduct the polls.

The polling will begin at 8am and continue till 4pm without any interval. The EC and law enforcement agencies have identified 108 polling stations as “important”. Additional security measures have been taken in those places.

At least 24 security personnel would be deployed at the important centres and 22 at general centres. Besides, CCTV cameras have been set up at ward no. 20 (Girls’ High School), ward no. 24 (Lions School and College) and ward no. 25 (Government Begum Rokeya College).

At least 5,500 members of law enforcement agencies have been deployed to ensure foolproof security so that voters can cast their votes without intimidation. The security force comprises 21 platoons of the Border Guards Bangladesh, 33 teams of the Rapid Action Battalion, and 4,470 police and Ansar members.

Moreover, there will be 33 striking forces under one executive magistrate and 11 mobile courts under an executive magistrate.

Returning officer Shubhas Chandra Sarkar said there will be 11 EC monitoring teams at the field for overall monitoring of the election and they would report directly to the poll panel.

The BGB personnel have been deployed since Monday morning. The force would stay till the day after the election to prevent any sort of violence.

This would be the second city corporation poll in Rangpur after it was upgraded to a corporation on June 28, 2012. The first RCC polls were on December 20, 2012, without any use of party symbols.

Meanwhile, the EC could not confirm the use of electronic voting machines (EVMs) even a day before the poll. This has surprised political experts as the EC was expected to use the EVM in at least one centre during the RCC poll.

Political leaders said such backtracking is not a good sign for future elections.

“The use of the EVM can’t be ascertained till tomorrow because it’s a technical matter. Without being absolutely certain, we can’t take any risk,” the CEC told journalists at the press conference.

Earlier, the EC had planned to use an EVM at the centre no. 141 in Government Begum Rokeya College under ward no. 25. Mock voting had been practised several times as a run up to the polling day.

However, assistant returning officer Shahtab told the Independent: “The EVM will be used at the centre. So far, we’ve found it’s functioning well. If it doesn’t work tomorrow, we’ll fall back on the previous arrangement.”