Balloting at 55 municipalities in the fourth phase elections began on Sunday with participation of political parties in the mayoral race of the local bodies.

Voting started at 8:00 am and will continue until 4:00 pm without any break.

Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) are being used for voting in 29 municipalities. Regular ballot papers will be used for voting in the rest of the municipalities.
The police administration has taken adequate security measures to avert any untoward incident.

A total of 221 candidates are contesting the race for mayoral posts in 55 municipalities, 2,073 for the posts of general councillor and 618 for the posts of reserved councillor.

The district administrations completed preparations as the returning and the presiding officers collected election materials from the Upazila Election Offices on Saturday.

Besides this, 167 mobile and 55 striking forces of police, 167 Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) teams have been deployed to ensure smooth voting in the elections.

Two platoons of Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) in each upazila and one platoon of Coast Guard in the coastal areas have also been deployed.

Meanwhile, 500 executive and 55 judicial magistrates are in the field.

Clashes between supporters of mayoral and councillor candidates and torching of poll campaign offices have recently taken place in different municipalities, including Alamdanga in Chuadanga, Gopalpur in Tangail, Kalkini in Madaripur, Phulpur in Mymensingh, Lalmonirhat Sadar, Ranishangkail in Thakurgaon and Rajbari Sadar.

In a pre-election violence, a man was killed as supporters of the ruling party candidate and incumbent Gopalpur mayor Rakibul Haque were locked into clashes with followers of AL rebel candidate Gias Uddin in Gopalpur Bazar and Someshpur on February 6.

BDST: 1150 HRS, FEB 14, 2021
SMS