Bangladesh elections: Over 50% polling centres considered 'risky', CCTV installed at most stations

More than half the polling centres have been identified as "risk-prone" for the general elections in Bangladesh, as officials said 90 per cent of them will be under CCTV surveillance, with many policemen deployed in the capital, Dhaka, wearing body cameras.

Officials said the Election Commission's security system is based on risk assessment. “Security deployment is being made based on local sensitivity assessments,” Election Commissioner Abul Fazal Mohammad Sanaullah told a media briefing late Tuesday.

EC officials said the elections would witness the largest-ever deployment of law enforcement personnel and the most extensive use of technology in the country's electoral history.

Sanaullah said the poll body expected law enforcement agencies to ensure a peaceful atmosphere for voters during polling and after elections. He said the EC was largely satisfied with the current law-and-order situation and “compared to any time in the past, we are in a better position now”.

His comments came hours after the police Inspector General Baharul Alam said they found 24,000 out of nearly 43,000 polling centres across the country were “high” or “moderate” risk-prone election stations.

Police said they provided a list of risk-prone polling centres to the EC, which showed that out of 2,131 polling centres in Dhaka, 1,614 were risk-prone. However, the army, in a media briefing earlier, said they have identified two centres in Dhaka city to be "risky".

Election Commissioner Brigadier General (Retd.) Abul Fazal Md. Sanaullah on Tuesday said nearly 958,000 law enforcement personnel have been deployed across the country to ensure a free, fair and impartial national election and referendum on Thursday.

"Additionally, for the first time, UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles), drones, and body-worn cameras are being used for election security," he told a press briefing on overall election preparations at Nirbachan Bhaban in the capital's Agargaon.

He said voting will be held in 299 constituencies on Thursday. Voting in Sherpur-3 has been postponed due to the death of a candidate there.

A total of 2,098 executive magistrates and 657 judicial magistrates will discharge duties in the election filed.

The Election Commissioner said, "For the first time, UAVs, drones, and body-worn cameras are being used for law enforcement. Around 25,000 body-worn cameras will be deployed on the field. Some of these are IP-based for live feed, while others will record locally. Moreover, for continuous monitoring, CCTV cameras have already been installed in over 90% of centres."

He said voting will continue from 7:30 am to 4:30 pm. However, voters present within the polling center by 4:30 pm will still be allowed to vote.

He said voting will be held in a total of 42,659 centres.

EC data showed that first-time voters made up some 3.58 per cent of the total 1,27,700,597 voters. The polls are being held simultaneously along with a referendum on a complex 84-point reform package.

The contest is mainly between the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and its once ally, Jamaat-e-Islami. Chief adviser Muhammad Yunus’ interim government last year disbanded deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League and barred it from contesting the polls.

A series of pre-poll surveys conducted in the past two months by consulting firms, research organisations and think tanks suggest that the BNP was the frontrunner and that its new chairman, Tarique Rahman, is in pole position to be the next prime minister.

Hasina’s Awami League government was ousted in a student-led violent street protest, dubbed the July Uprising, on August 5, 2024.