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EC presses for tight security

Pankaj Karmakar
The Election Commission has asked the home ministry to draw up a comprehensive plan to ensure security in all polling stations across the country ahead of the next parliamentary polls.
The EC yesterday sent a letter to the ministry, seeking security for all polling centres, polls offices and election officials, an EC official told The Daily Star on condition of anonymity.
It had earlier written to the home ministry twice - first at the end of October and then in the middle of this month -asking it to provide safety to election staffs and field-level offices.
The commission wants tighter security in the next election, fearing that there might be violence if the main opposition boycotts it. The EC intends to go for army deployment much before the election day, said EC sources.
EC presses for
FROM PAGE 16
For discussing law and order in the country, the EG will hold a meeting today with the principal staff officer of the Armed Forces Division, the inspector general of police, and the chiefs of law enforcement and intelligence agencies.
The decision on the duration of army deployment will be taken at the meeting scheduled for 11:00am at the EC Secretariat in the capital.
Meanwhile, Dhaka Metropolitan Police Commissioner Benazir Ahmed called on the chief election commissioner in the morning and told him that police had taken all measures to ensure security for the EC Secretariat.
The commission yesterday sent five more letters to different ministries and divisions, seeking their cooperation in holding the election.
The EC wrote to the Cabinet Division, asking it not to transfer any government officials related to polls without consulting the commission till 15 days after the publication of election results.
In another letter, the EC told the division to ensure that the government officials, who will perform electoral duties, can work impartially and properly.
The commission also asked the LGRD ministry to make sure that no candidate uses government vehicles, establishments or other facilities in electoral campaigns.
tight security
"We have asked the ministry to cooperate with our field-level election officers," said a deputy secretary at the EC, asking not to be named.
The commission sent another letter to the Banking Division for issuing a circular on all banks to check all nomination papers for loan defaulters.
The electoral rules bar a loan defaulter from contesting the polls.
Besides, if a person is under 25 or declared insane by a court or convicted of more than two years' imprisonment or is holding any office of profit of the government, he or she cannot participate in the election.
The EC in principle decided not to allow the advisers to the prime minister, chairmen of upazila and union parishads and the three district councils in Chittagong Hill Tracts to contest the polls for holding offices of profit, said a source at the EC.
They have to resign their posts to contest the election. The final decision on the matter will be taken today, said the source.
In the letter to the law ministry, the EC proposed increasing the number of electoral inquiry committees across the country to monitor violations of the electoral code of conduct during campaigning.
In the ninth national election, 80 committees were set up across the country. This time the EC has proposed raising the number to 140.
The 10th parliamentary election is scheduled to be held on January 5 next year.