All eyes on Rangpur city as polls today

Rangpur City Corporation is set to go to its second election today (Thursday) amid a four-tier security measure having the presence of over 5,500 security personnel, reports UNB.
The voting will begin at 8am and continue until 4pm without any break at 193 polling stations.
Of the polling stations, 128 are reported to be vulnerable, or at risk of seeing violence. A security team, numbering 22-25, will guard every polling station.
Claiming that the situation is fully under control of the Election Commission, Chief Election Commissioner KM Nurul Huda on Wednesday hoped that the election will be held in a credible manner.
"We hope it'll be possible to arrange the election in a fair and credible manner. The situation is in favour of us," the CEC told a press conference at the city's Nirbachan Bhaban.
He said the Election Commission (EC) has already taken all the necessary preparations for the election.
Seven candidates are there in the election race for the mayoral post while 211 candidates for ward councillors and 65 women candidates for councillors (reserved seats).
In the mayoral race, there will be a triangular fight among Sarfuddin Ahmed of Awami League, Md Mostafizur Rahman of Jatiya Party and Kawsar Jahan Babla of BNP, local people said.
The election is going to be held with the polls symbols of political parties unlike its maiden election held on December 20, 2012 when pro-Awami League candidate Sarfuddin Ahmed (Jhantu) was elected mayor defeating his nearest rival Mostafizur Rahman.
In the 2012 election, Sarfuddin bagged 106,255 votes while Mostafiz polled 77,835 and Jatiya Party-backed AKM Abdur Rouf Manik got 37,208 votes and BNP-backed KawsarJahan bagged only 21,235 votes.
This time, Hossain Makbul Shahriar, who is the nephew of HM Ershad, is contesting the election as an independent mayoral candidate as the party nominated Mostafiz to contest the polls.