EC seeks security for its field offices

The Election Commission has asked the home ministry to ensure security for the EC's field-level offices which it expects "to be under threat before the national elections".

The EC wrote to the Public Security Division on Thursday, said Election Commission Secretariat Additional Secretary Ashok Kumar Debnath.

The preparations for the upcoming national polls have already started and voter lists, ballot boxes, and various election materials will be stored in the regional, district, upazila and thana election offices in metropolitan areas.

The EC's upazila and district offices only have a night guard, unless the commission asks for more security ahead of an election.

"The security of these offices is expected to be under threat before the national elections. … it is necessary to ensure the overall security of the offices of the Election Commission Secretariat at the field level," read the letter.

Mustafizur Rahman, senior secretary to the Public Security Division, told The Daily Star yesterday that they were yet to receive the letter. "We will definitely take necessary actions to ensure security once we get the details and there is no question about it."

The commission sent the letter after several field-level officials of the EC in a meeting expressed their apprehensions about the offices being attacked if some parties boycott the polls.

They said that during the 2014 elections, more than 110 upazila and district offices were attacked. The BNP and several other political parties boycotted that election. As a result, 153 out of 300 lawmakers were elected unopposed.

New York-based Human Rights Watch in its report in April 2014 said the polls were the most violent in Bangladesh's history. Months of political violence before and after the elections left hundreds dead and injured across the country.

Three election officials were killed and 330 other officials and law enforcers were injured on election day, HRW said citing media reports.

The attackers also torched dozens of schools that were supposed to be polling stations. Ministers of the government claimed that 553 educational institutions were damaged in election-related violence, it added.

On October 9, eminent citizens in a discussion said a political consensus through dialogue is urgently needed to avoid possible violence in the days ahead as the Awami League and the BNP are at odds over the polls-time government.

The AL says the election will be held under the current government as per the constitution, while the BNP is demanding a caretaker government saying polls under the current administration will not be free and fair.