Home Adviser Lt Gen (retd) Md Jahangir Alam Chowdhury on Monday said the government will deploy nearly nine lakh members of law enforcement agencies and support services across the country to ensure a free, fair, peaceful, and impartial 13th parliamentary election and referendum slated for 12 February.

“The deployment will be carried out in two phases, with all security operations coordinated under the authority of the returning officers,” he said.

He made the disclosure at a press briefing following the 20th meeting of the Law and Order Advisory Council Committee at the home ministry in the Bangladesh Secretariat here.

The deployment includes 100,000 members of the Bangladesh Army; 5,000 from the Bangladesh Navy; 3,730 (including 1,250 in land-based roles) from the Bangladesh Air Force; 149,443 from the Bangladesh Police; 576,314 from the Bangladesh Ansar and VDP; 37,453 from the Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB), 3,585 from the Bangladesh Coast Guard; 7,700 from the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB); and 13,390 from the Fire Service and Civil Defence (support services), according to the home adviser.

The second phase of deployment will be vote-centric, with law enforcement personnel remaining on duty for seven days from 8 to 14 February, he also said.

A Law and Order Coordination Cell will be formed involving the police, armed forces, BGB, Coast Guard, and RAB to ensure seamless coordination.

A special team linked to the 999 emergency services will operate round-the-clock to receive election-related complaints and relay them instantly to the home ministry and local coordination cells.

To enhance security, 25,000 body-worn cameras will be used at important polling stations, while CCTV cameras will be installed in all 42,761 polling stations nationwide.

The government has also categorised polling centres into 8,780 most important, 16,548 important, and 17,433 general stations based on security sensitivity.

For the first time in a national election, 418 drones from various law enforcement agencies will be deployed for surveillance, alongside dog squads and area-based operations to recover illegal weapons and arrest suspected miscreants.

Jahangir said the newly introduced “Election Security App–2026”, developed by the National Telecommunication Monitoring Center (NTMC), will play a crucial role in real-time monitoring and rapid response to law and order issues.

He reiterated that law enforcement agencies have been instructed to take immediate legal action against any attempt to disrupt or influence the election, ensuring a festive and peaceful voting environment across the country.