EC not under pressure: CEC

Staff Reporter :
Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Kazi Habibul Awal has said, the Election Commission does not feel any pressure as it is doing its duties.
He was responding to questions from journalists at Nirbachon Bhaban after visiting the district council election monitoring cell on Sunday.
The district council polls will take place in 57 districts from 9am to 2pm on Monday.
The Election Commission will monitor the polls through CCTV cameras from the monitoring cell of Nirbachan Bhaban.
The commission on Wednesday suspended the by-election of Gaibandha-5 constituency over widespread allegations of vote rigging and voter intimidation.
CEC Awal said the practice of using CCTV cameras is recent. “We can monitor elections from here through it. This is a
 good practice,” he said.
“We have no party. We want voters to be able to cast their votes. We are using CCTV cameras to ensure this,” he added.
In response to a question about how the commission will monitor so many centres through CCTV cameras during the national election, Election Commissioner Alamgir said: “There will be 400,000 polling booths at 40,000 or 42,000 polling stations during the national election. The five election commissioners will not be the only ones monitoring the national election; more people will be engaged for monitoring.”
In response to another question, the election commissioner said CCTV cameras will be in use at every centre in the district council polls just like the Gaibandha one.
Voting in the district council polls will be held at 925 booths of 462 centres across the country. As many as 60,866 voters will cast their votes.