Voting underway in Rangpur city polls

Desk Report: Voting in the election to Rangpur City Corporation (RCC) election began on Thursday morning.

Polling began at 8:00am in all 1,122 polling booths of 193 polling centres under 33 wards in area and continue till 4:00pm without any break.

Counting of votes will start subsequently at Police Community Hall in the city.

Under the current Election Commission headed by KM Nurul Huda, this election is the second major polls after Comilla City Corporation election held in March last.

A total of 393,994 voters will apply their voting rights. Of them, 196,356 are males and 197,638 females.

In the mayoral race, there are being a triangular fight among Sarfuddin Ahmed of Awami League, Md Mostafizur Rahman of Jatiya Party and Kawsar Jahan Babla of BNP, local people said.

Seven candidates are there in the election race for the mayoral post, while 211 candidates for ward councillors and 65 women candidates for reserved councilors.

Alongside over 5,500 law enforcers, 11 judicial magistrates and 33 executive magistrates are in the election area to check any possible breaching of the election code of conduct and election violence.

Closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras have been installed in three polling stations to monitor the election uninterruptedly.

The EC have two monitoring cells – one in Rangpur and another in the EC Secretariat—to watch the election continuously.

The Commission has sent its own observer team, numbering 22 officials, to monitor the polls.

On November 5 last, the EC announced the election schedule for the city corporation.



risingbd/Rangpur/Dec 21, 2017/Mukul