Madaripur district administration has identified 235 polling centres that are “vulnerable”, out of 376 in three constituencies in the district.

Deputy Commissioner of Madaripur, Md Wahidul Islam, said that the administration had taken all necessary steps to tackle any untoward incident at the polling centres today.

More than 1,000 law enforcers, including police and Rapid Action Battalion personnel, are set to be deployed with army personnel as striking force to keep the situation under control, he told The Daily Star.

Besides, the chief judicial magistrate will be there to hold summary trial and 19 executive magistrates will operate mobile courts if election-related offences occur during polls, Wahidul said.

Referring to allegations by the BNP and independent candidate of Madirpur-2 constituency, against police of arresting their supporters and activists, the deputy commissioner said arrests had been made on specific allegations. 

The deputy commissioner also claimed that actions had been taken for all allegations of electoral code of conduct violation.

More than 8.5 lakh people had been registered as voters in the three constituencies in Madaripur – having 13 candidates in the electoral race. Wahidul expressed the hope that voting would be peaceful and fair.

The race will be mainly between candidates of the ruling Awami League and the BNP in the district and it will be a tough one, said the deputy commissioner, assigned as returning officer of Madaripur.

Meanwhile, some areas of the constituencies were unusually calm yesterday, our staff correspondent reports from Madaripur.