Gazipur City Corporation polls underway

Gazipur City Corporation (GCC) election has begun on Thursday morning.

The voting began at 8am and it will continue till 4pm without any break.

The most talked-about candidates are independent Zaida Khatun, the mother of former mayor Zahangir Alam, and AL nominee for mayor Azmat Ullah Khan.

Azmat ran for mayor in 2013 but lost to MA Mannan of the BNP. With AL's approval, Zahangir Alam was elected mayor of the largest city corporation in the nation in 2018.

Election Commissioner M Alamgir on Thursday said the Election Commission (EC) has already taken all the necessary preparations to hold the polls free and fairly.

The voting is being held using the electronic voting machine (EVM) at 480 polling centers under the GCC area.

There are approximately 11,794,764 voters in the GCC, which consists of 57 total wards. Male voters make up 5,92,762 of them, female voters make up 5,86,696, and the remaining 18 are hijras.

Gazipur Metropolitan Police (GMP) Commissioner Molla Nazrul Islam said a total of 13,000 law enforcers were deployed to maintain law and order during the election.

At every voting centre, law enforcement personnel is present. Some 129 polling places are general, while 351 are risky.

A total of 30 teams led by members of the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), 13 platoons of the Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB), 19 teams from the striking police force, and 57 mobile teams were also deployed at the GCC areas.