Dhaka: Voting begins on 234 municipalities on Wednesday morning as people will see the battle of ballots mainly between the candidates of ‘Boat’ and ‘Sheaf of Paddy’ after seven years and first time along party line.

The voting started from about 8:00am and will continue till 4:00pm without any break across the country.

The Election Commission sent over 1.10 crore ballot papers, translucent ballot boxes and other election materials to the 3,555 polling stations in the municipalities on Tuesday.

Voting at a few polling stations was suspended fearing violence ahead of elections. These are 2 stations at Kalkini in Madaripur, and one station at Borura municipality in Comilla.

Though some 1.17 lakh security men and 1200 magistrates are there in the election areas to prevent violence and election anomalies, voters and candidates of opposition parties are worried over possible vote rigging and anomalies in the elections.

According to reports of the intelligence agencies, 1184 ones are vulnerable. A 20-member security team will guard each vulnerable polling station while a 19-member one every normal polling centre.

There are five police members with arms, two Ansar members with arms and 12 Ansar/VDP members with sticks in the 19-member security team, while there will be six police members instead of five in case of 20-member team.

The movement of all types of motorised vehicle except the permitted ones are restricted in election areas from Tuesday midnight to Wednesday midnight.

According to EC’s statistics, 12,171 candidates – 945 mayoral, some 8,746 general councillor and over 2,480 women councillor contenders in reserved seats – are contesting the polls for 3,158 posts that include 234 mayoral, 727 women (reserved seats) councillor and 2,182 general councillor posts in the election.

Meanwhile, seven Awami League mayoral candidates have already been elected unopposed in seven municipalities, including Pirojpur, Madarganj, Tungipara, Feni, Parshuram, Chatkhil and Chenggarchar. So, the mayoral post election will be held in 227 other municipalities on Wednesday.

Besides, 94 general councillor and 40 women councillor contenders have also been elected unopposed in various municipalities.

Among 945 mayoral candidates, 234 are contenders of ruling Awami League, while 223 of its arch rival BNP, 74 of Jatiya Party, 57 of Islami Andolan Bangladesh and 21 of Jasod.

Besides, 51 other candidates from 15 small political parties and 285 independent contestants are running the polls.

A total of 70,72,511 voters can exercise their franchise in the election.

Among the 1.17 lakh law enforcers, some 45,000 are of police, while 9415 of BGB, 8,424 of Rab, 225 of Coast Guard, 49,728 of Ansar and VDP, 4,512 of Battalion Ansar.

At least five magistrates, including a judicial one, will be there in each municipality. Besides, a seven-member central monitoring cell at the EC Secretariat will monitor the law and order situation in the election.

A total of 279 platoons (a platoon comprising 30 members) of the paramilitary force—Border Guarder Bangladesh—has been deployed in 228 municipalities, and a platoon of Coast Guard in each six others close to the coast.

At least 234 mobile teams of RAB are on patrol, while 81 of RAB and 234 separate teams comprising the members of the police, the APBn and the Ansar are on election duty as striking force. At least five magistrates, including a judicial magistrate, are there in each municipality.

EC officials said unlike previous local body election, no foreign observer is monitoring the municipal election.

Only 118 observers from seven election monitoring organisations collected permission cards from the EC to observe the election centrally.

The 118 observers include 8 of Manobadhikar O Samaj Unnayan Sangstha, 18 of Brotee, 15 of FEMA, 14 of Janipop, 23 of Bangladesh Human Rights Commission, 25 of Democracy Watch and 15 of Bangladesh Manobadhikar Somonnoy Parishad.