The much-awaited as well as much-discussed 12^th national elections are going to be held on tomorrow— Sunday, January 7. The elections commission (EC) has taken a very strict position to hold non-biased and fair elections. Around 800,000 members of law enforcing agencies have been deployed to keep the electoral environment disciplined and peaceful.

The voting process will start at 8am on Sunday and will be continued till 4pm In 299 constituencies. As a candidate was died in Naogaon-2 constituency, vote will be held later on there. The elections campaigns of the candidates and their supporters have been ended in Friday morning. However, according to the elections analysts, the main challenge of this elections is to bring the voters to the polling centers in the face of poll-boycott by the main opposition BNP and like-minded parties.

Members of law and order forces, along with the armed forces, and executive and judicial magistrates are present at the polling ground for peaceful polling. Apart from this, members of the law and order forces have entered the field on Friday for ensuring the security of the polling station. They will stay till the day after the polls. The Election Commission has ordered to strengthen the security and surveillance of the polling stations, related institutions and buildings to avoid any untoward situation in the elections. The commission is strictly monitoring everything to ensure fair and peaceful polling. For this reason control room has been opened in EC. 1, 970 candidates of 28 parties are fighting for the election. Among them, there’re 436 party members and 1, 534 independent contestants, 93 women candidates and 79 candidates from other communities including minorities.

From 48 hours before polling to 48 hours after polling, meetings, processions and rallies cannot be held in the constituencies. The ban will be in force from 8 am on January 5 to 4pm on January 9.

Challenge of attracting voters: Badiul Alam Majumder, the secretary of Citizens for Good Governance (Sujan), said, “BNP, one of the main opposition parties, is not in this elections. They have no allies. Due to the lack of opportunity to choose suitable options, naturally a large part of the voters are not interested in this elections. Voter turnout will be very low if there is no pressure to go to the polling station.”

Former Election Commissioner Brigadier General (retd.) M Sakhawat Hossain said, “If there is no sudden change in the minds of the voters on January 7, then it does not seem that more than 35-40 percent of votes will be cast.”

The former election commissioner Md. Shahnewaz said even if the voter turnout is low as 16 political parties including BNP are not in the election, it will be more than the 10th parliamentary elections. According to him, as there are many strong independent candidates, many voters will reluctantly go to the centers due to personal connections. As a result, the voter turnout will not be less than normal.

Recently, they said these things in an exclusive interview to The Bangladesh Pratidin.

Candidates in polls are now 1970, party 28: 1, 970 candidates are contesting in the 12th parliamentary elections. Among them 436 are party members and 1,534 independent people, 93 women candidates and 79 candidates from other communities including minorities. Ashok Kumar Debnath, Additional Secretary of the Election Commission said this number has been finalized after the cancellation of the candidature of one person and 76 people whose candidatures were returned after the withdrawal of candidature.

EC Additional Secretary said on Thursday, after the withdrawal of candidature, there are 1, 895 competing candidates. After that, 76 people got back their candidature by the order of the court. And the Election Commission canceled one's candidature. Now there are 1, 970 people in 300 seats. Among them there are two candidates of Naogaon-2 seat; however, after the death of the candidate in this seat, the polling date will be fixed in the new schedule and new candidates can also be added. 28 parties are participating in this election.

8 lakh members of law and order force in polls-field: This time around 8 lakh government officials will be engaged in polling activities and 8 lakh members will be deployed to maintain law and order. Apart from this, 1 lakh additional government officials will be on standby. Ansar and VDP, RAB, BGB in total 8 lakh members of law and order forces are in the field. They will remain in the field till the polls are over. Apart from this, about 3,000 magistrates and judges are in the field to take care of law and order.

Cancellation of leave in fire service, formation of monitoring cell: Fire service and civil defense have formed a central monitoring and coordination cell to take into consideration any accident including arson during the parliamentary elections. In a notification, the fire service said on Thursday that all levels of officers and employees of all fire stations in the country have been canceled and kept on 'standby duty'. It is said in the notification, 'Central monitoring and coordination cell will work as a special cell along with the central control room to collect and coordinate accident information in any part of the country including Dhaka.

Motorcycles will not run for three days: Before and after the elections day, the movement of motorcycles has been banned across the country for 72 hours. Motorcycles movement have been closed since midnight of Friday. At the same time, taxi cabs, pickups, microbuses and trucks will also be closed from midnight on Saturday till 12am midnight on Sunday. The Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) has said that bike movement will be banned from midnight on Friday (January 5) till midnight on Monday (January 8), the day after the polls. However, journalists, observers or motorcycles used for emergency purposes can move. For this, the approval of the Returning Officer must be obtained and the sticker must be displayed. The ban will not apply to vehicles carrying law enforcement, armed forces, administrations and authorized observers. There is no restriction on the movement of vehicles engaged in emergency services, medicines, health-medical and all types of goods used for such purposes and newspapers. Apart from this, there will be no restrictions on the movement of vehicles carrying relatives of persons coming to the country from abroad and going abroad. In this case, the law enforcement agencies should show the flight ticket. In the notification, it has been mentioned that there is no restriction on the movement of any type of vehicle for long-distance passenger and long-distance passenger at the local level. On the other hand, one vehicle for the contesting candidate and one vehicle for the candidate's agents will be allowed to ply by displaying the sticker subject to the permission of the Returning Officer.

Voter numbers, center information will be available from home through election app: The Election Commission (EC) has launched an app called 'Smart Election Management BD' to ensure various information of voters, candidates and citizens. In this, everyone can know about various comparative images of the elections including voter numbers, center names and locations, vote reading rates, candidate's affidavit from home.

​​(The report was published on print and online versions of The Bangladesh Pratidin on January 6 and rewritten in English by Lutful Hoque Khan)