Nearly one million members from the armed forces and different law enforcement agencies will officially be deployed across the country for seven days from Sunday to maintain law and order as well as contain violation of electoral code of conduct in the referendum and parliamentary elections scheduled for February 12.
Besides, 1,051 executive magistrates are being deployed throughout the country for the seven days from February 8 to 14 to prevent and punish the violation of the election code.
A total of 970,948 security persons are supposed to be deployed from Sunday for the election duty, according to the statistics of the Election Commission.
The security personnel include 100,003 Army personnel, 5000 Navy personnel, 3730 Air Force members, 37,453 BGB personnel, 3,585 Coast Guard members, 187,603 police members, 9,349 Rab members, 576,483 Ansar and VDP members, 1922 BNCC cadets and 45,820 Chowkidar and Dafadar.
According to a government circular, the armed forces, BGB, Coast Guard, Rab, police, Armed Police Battalion (APBn) and Ansar Battalions will work as mobile and striking forces to maintain peace and order in the election areas. BGB, Rab, APBn and Ansar battalions will operate on district, upazila and thana levels, while the Coast Guard will be deployed in coastal areas.
Talking to the media in this regard, Election Commissioner Abdur Rahmanel Masud on Saturday said the Army has already been deployed in the field and more personnel will officially join from Sunday.
“The armed forces will formally remain deployed for seven days before and after the election. All agencies have informed us that the overall law and order situation in the country is completely good and conducive to holding the election,” he said.
He also said ballot boxes have already been sent to districts and are being received by the Returning Officers. “Everyone is now busy with final preparations for the polls. We believe the election environment is quite good,” said Rahmanel Masud.
Outside the metropolitan areas, a team of 16–17 police and Ansar members will be deployed at each normal polling station, while 17–18 personnel will be posted at every vulnerable polling station, according to the EC.
In metropolitan areas, 16 security personnel –police and ansar members-- will be deployed at a normal polling station and 17 personnel at each vulnerable polling station.
In remote areas of 25 districts, a team of 16–18 police and Ansar members will be deployed at each polling station.
Postal Balloting
Meanwhile, the Election Commission, led by Chief Election Commissioner AMM Nasir Uddin, has introduced an IT-supported hybrid postal balloting system, combining digital registration with manual voting, for expatriate Bangladeshis living in more than 120 countries for the first time.
The new postal balloting system is also being used by government employees working outside their constituencies, polling officials and individuals under legal custody within the country.
So far, about 8.72 lakh voters, including expatriates, have cast their votes through postal ballots for the parliamentary election and referendum.
A total of 1,528,131 voters, including 767,233 expatriates under the Out-of-Country Voting (OCV) programme and 760,898 government officials, polling personnel and prisoners under the In-Country Postal Voting (ICPV) programme, were registered for postal voting.
Among them, 871,948 voters, including 502,772 expatriates, had cast their votes by 8:30pm on Saturday, four days ahead of the Election Day.
The Election Commission announced the election schedule on December 11 last year to hold the 13th parliamentary election and the referendum on the July National Charter (Constitutional Reform) Implementation Order simultaneously on February 12, 2026.