Staff Correspondent: Bangladesh has deployed 418 platoons of the Border Guard Bangladesh during the first phase of the Upazila council polls to maintain law and order in the constituencies going to the polls.

At the same time, 159,874 Ansar-Village Defence Party personnel have been deployed across the country to maintain order during voting and the security of the ballot boxes, reports bdnews24.com.

Voting in the first phase of the 6th Upazila Parishad Elections will be held at 10,605 polling stations in 141 Upazilas in 59 districts across the country on May 8. Polls will open at 8am and end at 4pm. Twenty-two Upazilas will use electronic voting machines for the polls, while the others will use paper ballots.

A total of 31,468,102 registered voters can cast their ballots in the first phase of the election.

The BGB will act as a mobile and strike force in the electoral areas from May 6 to May 10 as part of its cooperation with the local civil administration for the first phase of the Upazila polls on May 8, according to a press release from the border security force. Each platoon typically has 30 BGB personnel.

A team of 13 or more Ansar and VDP personnel were assigned to each polling centre and began work on Monday, a press release from the Ansar-VDP said.

The team will consist of six male and four male personnel led by a platoon commander and two assistant platoon commanders. If there are more than six booths to a centre, an additional Ansar-VDP member will be assigned per booth. The PCs and APCs will be armed, while the other personnel will be unarmed while ensuring security at the centres.

A press release from the Ansar-VDP said that 152,786 ordinary Ansar and VDP members were deployed at polling stations and for ballot box security as per instructions from the Election Commission. In addition, 76 platoons (2,299 personnel) of Ansar battalion members have been deployed as a striking/static force to carry out the duties according to the directions of a district magistrate.

For the first time, around 94 platoons (2,820 personnel), of armed Ansar-VDP members are working in coordination with the police mobile teams and striking teams. About two thousand other members of the force, including officials and employees, are performing duties at the field level to supervise the deployments. All of them will be deployed for the five days from May 6 to May 10.