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There were also 19 striking teams, with an additional 8 teams on standby at each police station. In addition, a fleet of 57 mobile forces, comprising members from the police, Armed Police Battalion (APBN), and the Ansar Battalion, were also deployed. With 8,031 dedicated law enforcers stationed at centres, alongside the presence of 30 Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) teams and 13 platoons of the Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB), no stone was left unturned.

This move was aimed at ensuring impartiality of the personnel presented. Police personnel were even brought from different districts – Jhenaidah, Brahmanbaria and Chattogram – to be stationed at polling centres. The EC ensured that there weren't any untoward incidents, except two offenders who were apprehended for their involvement in illicitly influencing voters. That is why the Gazipur election should be a model.' Before this, we think that an election of such a large scale will carry a lot of national importance. On 10 May, Chief Election Commissioner Kazi Habibul Awal said, 'The Gazipur City Corporation election is very important to us because there is the general election ahead of us. It could also be the first, and perhaps most important, feather in the EC's cap. Meanwhile, Zaida's win is also seen as being not hers alone. With a thick security blanket in place, the EC had managed a peaceful election, a kind that had not been seen in recent years.Īlthough there were no allegations of vote-rigging, the absence of the BNP, the major opposition party in the country, made the election less competitive.Ī low voter turnout, around 50% according to Election Commissioner Md Alamgir, was another issue.Īnnouncing the result, Election Commissioner Md Alamgir once again reiterated how the Gazipur polls was a model and how exactly that was demonstrated.Įarlier, the EC expressed satisfaction regarding the Gazipur city polls, stressing that no information of irregularities has been reported by far. This was what the Election Commission (EC) had promised would be a model election.

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With a voter turnout of 63.69%, Mannan upended the system, ensuring that AL's bastion fell in a largely free and fair election.Ī few months before the Jatiya Sangsad polls, the defeat was a blow to the ruling party.įive years later in 2018, the now-disgraced Zahangir Alam took up AL's mantle and won in an election with a voter turnout of 57.02%. In 2013, BNP's MA Mannan, a comparatively weaker candidate, was tasked with defeating the stalwart Azmat Ullah. The Gazipur-2 and -5 are constituencies the AL has never lost the national polls since restoration of democracy.ĭefeating the AL-candidate and securing the mayoral seat was a gargantuan task for any. In the national elections over the years, Gazipur-1 was bagged by the BNP once, in the 1991 parliamentary polls, but after that it has always been held by the AL.

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