The Election Commission has written to the Armed Forces Division to deploy army personnel from December 26 to maintain law and order before, during and after the January-5 general election.
The EC secretariat on Sunday sent a letter, singed by its joint secretary Jesmin Tuli, to the Principal Staff Officer of the Armed Forces Division.
The letter says that the Election Commission has decided to deploy army personnel alongside law enforcing agencies in line with the article 126 of the Constitution in a bid to hold the election in a fair, free, neutral and peaceful manner.
The commission in its Friday’s law and order meeting came up with the decision to deploy army from December 26 to January 9.
The article 126 of the constitution states, “It shall be the duty of all executive authorities to assist the Election Commission in the discharge of its functions.”
The letter also says the army will work as per sections 130 and 131 of the Criminal Procedures Act and the regulations and power provided by Article 7 and 10 of Instruction Regarding ‘In Aid to Civil Power’ issued by the Defence Ministry.
The army will take position as strike force at nodal points (convenient places to move) in each district, upazila and metropolitan areas.
There will be an executive magistrate with each team of the army while they will be working as the strike force.
The duration of the army deployment was five to seven days in all the previous general elections since 1973 other than the 1996 February one-sided polls.
In the 1996 February election, the army was deployed for 20 days and in 2006 the army was also fielded on January 9 before the scrapped January 22 election.
Source: UNBConnect