Rangpur City Corporation is set to go to its second election on Thursday amid a four-tier security measure having the presence of over 5,500 security personnel.

The voting will begin at 8:00am and continue till 4pm with any break at 193 polling stations, reports the UNB.

Of the polling stations, 128 are said to be vulnerable, or at risk of seeing violence. A security team, numbering 22-25, will guard every polling station.

Claiming that the situation is fully under control of the Election Commission, Chief Election Commissioner KM Nurul Huda on Wednesday hoped that the election will be held in a credible manner.

‘We hope it’ll be possible to arrange the election in fair and credible manner. The situation is in favour of us,’ the CEC told a press conference at the city’s Nirbachan Bhaban.

He said the Election Commission (EC) has already taken all the necessary preparations for the election.

Seven candidates are there in the election race for the mayoral post, while 211 candidates for ward councillors and 65 women candidates for reserved councillors.

In the mayoral race, there will be a triangular fight among Sarfuddin Ahmed of Awami League, Md Mostafizur Rahman of Jatiya Party and Kawsar Jahan Babla of BNP, local people said.

The election is going to be held with the polls symbols of political parties unlike its maiden election held on December 20, 2012, when pro-Awami League Sarfuddin Ahmed (Jhantu) was elected mayor defeating his nearest rival Mostafizur Rahman.

In the 2012 election, Sarfuddin bagged 106,255 votes, while Mostafiz polled 77,835 and Jatiya Party-backed AKM Abdur Rouf Manik got 37,208 votes and BNP-backed KawsarJahan bagged only 21,235 votes.

This time Hossain Makbul Shahriar, who is the nephew of HM Ershad, is contesting the election as an independent mayoral candidate as the party nominated Mostafiz to contest the polls.

Election Commissioner Rafiqul Islam also said they have taken all the measures to make Rangpur City Corporation polls ‘a model election’ and will try to arrange next city corporation elections in Gazipur, Rajshahi, Khulna, Barisal and Sylhet in the same manner.

Under the current Election Commission headed by KM Nurul Huda, this election is the second major polls after Comilla City Corporation election held in March last.

Just a day ahead of the election, the EC could not confirm whether new Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs)) instead of ballot paper will be used in a particular polling station — the Begum Rokeya Government College at ward 25 — as per its plan.

‘It’ll take time until tomorrow to be sure about the use of EVMs in Rangpur city polls as it is a technical matter.  And without being sure about its technical issues, we cannot take the risk of it,’ the CEC said replying to a question at the press conference.

Nurul Huda said closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras will be installed in three polling stations to monitor the election uninterruptedly.

A total of 3,93,994 voters — 1,96,356 men and 1,97,638 women  — are expected to exercise their voting right to elect a mayor, 33 ward councillors and 11 councillors to the reserved seats of women in the election.

Rafiqul Islam said the EC will have two monitoring cells — one in Rangpur and another in the EC Secretariat—to watch the election continuously.

The Commission has sent its own observer team, numbering 22 officials, to monitor the polls, he added.

Alongside over 5,500 law enforcers, 11 judicial magistrates and 33 executive magistrates will be in the election area to check any possible breaching of the election code of conduct and election violence, the Commissioner said.

On November 5 last, the EC announced the election schedule for the city corporation.