The Election Commission (EC) is conducting the 12th National Assembly election. The EC has started a training program by starting the training of Upazila Nirbahi Officers (UNOs) and Upazila Election Officers; will continue until November 2.

EC will train 492 UNOs and 522 Upazila Election Officers through 41 batches throughout the month. In this training, more importance is being given to election laws and online nomination papers and election apps.

On the other hand, election shopping is almost at the end. Election goods other than stamp pads have been tendered for elections. All the goods will be handed over to the Election Commission by November 7.

EC will select the upazila with the polling station and voter list of the parliamentary election; A lot of work will be ahead for this. Polling stations and voter list are also ready. The EC has said that the elections will be held in late December or early January with parliamentary elections scheduled for early November.

Meanwhile, although the 12th National Assembly elections were held on ballot papers, the Election Commission has prepared to make maximum use of technology in the election process. In this case, the candidates will be given the opportunity to submit their nomination papers online to control the muscle power and prevent obstruction in the submission of nomination papers. Along with this, there will be an opportunity to pay the security deposit online through e-banking.

The EC has developed an app called 'Bangladesh Election App' to reduce the hassle of finding polling station names and voter numbers. In addition to voter information, the identity and phone number of returning officer, assistant returning officer, DC, SP, OC and other election officials will be given in this app. The commission will inaugurate the app this month.

Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Kazi Habibul Awal said that the pressure of the controversy over the past 2014 and 2018 elections has fallen on the current Election Commission.

“In such a situation, the commission wants to take up the challenge of making elections credible. There can be various debates and criticisms about the election. It has happened in the past. 50, 60, 70 years of history can be found in controversy. Even the elections during the British era have had some controversy. Maybe the level was lower then.”

“One of the special aspects of the election that we are going to do is that the level of complaints or controversy is a bit excessive. The pressure of 2014 and 2018 has fallen on us, on the Election Commission. We are also working tirelessly... They can be true, false, false. We are not going that way,” CEC said.

“We want to take up the challenge of free, impartial and fair elections. The crisis with the election is a crisis of trust. Every day various crises are being talked about in the media. He instructed the officials concerned to be vigilant in fulfilling their duties so that there is no crisis of confidence in the future elections,” added CEC.

Addressing the UNO and upazila election officials, Kazi Habibul Awal said, “The responsibility assigned to you must be strictly followed. We will strictly monitor the matter from the Election Commission. I will try to know who you are and how you are performing your duties. I will take information from different media.”

“Elections will be credible only if the people can be shown to be performing their duties.” He said, “There is a perception in the market, there is no trust in us, there is no trust in the government. Selection is not acceptable. We want to accept this challenge, the elections that will be held under us will be free, fair and transparent. I want to show transparency through media and observers.”

“Now there is a lot of propaganda through the media. That is called misinformation, disinformation. Many things can be created and promoted at once. We will strictly resist them. So as not to affect the election negatively. He said, there are allegations of throwing out polling agents. Many complain without giving an agent. Therefore, the matter must be confirmed whether the agent has given from each party or not. The stronger the agent, the less likely it is to be tampered with,” he added.

(The report was published in Bengali on print and online versions of The Bangladesh Pratidin on October 02 and rewritten in English by Tanvir Raihan)