The army is in the field from today to assist in the election

The Dhaka Times Desk The army is entering the field from today to assist the Election Commission in the 10th National Assembly elections.

The army has already started entering the field to fulfill the electoral duties as per the demand of the Election Commission. Today, from December 26, army personnel will start performing election duties across the country. Army will be deployed in 59 districts. Except for 5 districts where MPs have already been elected unopposed in all the constituencies (Chandpur, Rajbari, Shariatpur, Madaripur and Jaipurhat), army personnel have already started moving into the remaining districts. To control the law and order in the constituencies and to ensure the safety of the voters, the army personnel will remain in the field for 4 days, till January 9, even after the polls. Sources in the media have confirmed that one battalion of the army i.e. 740 army personnel will be deployed in each district.

The total number of voters in the election of 146 constituencies to be held on January 5 is 4 crore 36 lakh 8 thousand 670 people. There are 18 thousand 123 polling stations. Candidates for 154 seats have already been elected unopposed. As a result, polling will not be required in those constituencies.

Election Commissioner Md. Shah Nawaz told the media that army personnel will not play a role in controlling law and order in any political unrest outside of election duties.

# Thursday, 26 December 2013

# 15 days election duty till 9 January.

# will have one battalion of army personnel (740 men) per district.

Army members have already been stationed at important places including highways of different districts for several days as part of the winter exercise. The army started its journey from various cantonments to the districts from last Wednesday night. Besides the central monitoring cell of the Election Commission, a coordination cell from the Armed Forces Department will also be operational. Even though the army camp has been deployed in the district, it is said that they will perform duty anywhere in the concerned district on the instructions of the returning officer. Basically they will work as a striking force.

It is to be noted that after a meeting with law enforcement and returning officers on December 20, Chief Election Commissioner Kazi Rakibuddin Ahmad announced the deployment of the army from December 26. CEC said that the army will remain in the field till January 9. Magistrate will be with army. As a part of this, on December 22, the Election Commission sent a formal letter to the Armed Forces Department to assist the civil administration in the election work.