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EC Writes to Army

Law and order plus safe traffic

Staff Correspondent
Besides maintaining law and order during the 10th parliamentary elections, the army will work to ensure safe traffic movement on roads and highways as well, says the Election Commission.
In a letter sent to the Armed Forces Division (AFD) yesterday, the EC said, armed forces personnel would work as a striking force to control the law and order situation and they would be deployed on important roads and highways to prevent any disruption of transport movement.
The EC letter signed by Jesmin
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too has decided not to send observers for the upcoming general elections. In a letter to the EC yesterday, the intergovernmental organisation said it would not send any observer as the atmosphere for a participatory and inclusive election was missing. Earlier on Friday, the EU declined to send election observers, saying political forces in the country had failed to create conditions for credible polls.
The EC letter signed by Jesmin Tuli, joint secretary to the EC Secretariat, and addressed to the principal staff officer of the AFD, stated that the detailed deployment plan and the number of troops to be deployed would be finalised by the AFD in coordination with returning officers.
EC sources said, the decision to take the help of army for securing traffic movement might have been prompted by the ongoing political violence across the country.
Talking to The Daily Star, former election commissioner M Sakhawat Hussain said violent programmes like hartals and blockades enforced by the opposition combine might have compelled the EC to take the decision.
"The situation is different this time
than the past elections," he said.
At least 120 people have been killed in less than a month as the BNP-led opposition alliance has been enforcing countrywide blockades since the announcement of election schedule on November 25. It has also threatened to intensify the agitations to resist the January 5 polls.
Against this backdrop, the EC on Friday held a high-profile meeting on the law and order situation with the top officials of the AFD, security and intelligence agencies and returning officers, and decided to deploy army from December 26 to ensure a peaceful atmosphere for the polls.
However, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Kazi Rakibuddin Ahmad has said five districts would not need army deployment, as all candidates there had already won uncontested.
If necessary, army could be deployed in these districts only to maintain law and order, he told reporters at the EC Secretariat yesterday.
Meanwhile, a delegation of Awami League led by former home minister MK Alamgir yesterday met the CEC and said the party would extend its all-out cooperation to hold the election peacefully.