RCC polls to be acceptable: CEC

Staff Correspondent: Expressing satisfaction over the situation existing in the Rangpur City Corporation (RCC), Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) KM Nurul Huda said, “We hope a free and fair poll will take place in Rangpur, as we have concluded all the necessary preparations. The situation is totally under control of EC.”

The CEC came up with the comment while talking to reporters at a press conference at city’s Election Commission Bhaban on Wednesday afternoon.

Talking about the use of EVM (Electronic Voting Machine), Huda said that they cannot confirm the use of new EVM in the polls until tomorrow.

The CEC said “It will take time until tomorrow to be sure about the use of EVM in Rangpur city polls as it is a technical matter.”

“And without being completely sure about its technical issues, we cannot take risk of it. Hopefully a free and fair poll will take place in Rangpur, as we have concluded all the necessary preparations. The situation is totally under control of EC,” he added.

Unlike the old EVM, the new machine has a number of fresh features, including voter verification process, display of names of symbols of all the candidates, printed vote-casting confirmation slip and installation of data of the particular polling station.

Meanwhile, Election commissioner Md Rafiqul Islam said two 24-hour monitoring cells- one at Rangpur and another at EC of secretariat, will be in operation during Rangpur mayoral polls.

More than 5,500 members of law enforcers will be deployed and CCTV camera will be set up at three polling centers, he said.

A total of 3, 93,894 voters are expected to cast their votes in 193 polling stations in the Rangpur city polls.

risingbd/Dhaka/Dec 20, 2017/Hasibul/AI