Staff CorrespondentThe Chief Election Commissioner, ATM Shamsul Huda, in a televised speech yesterday evening assured the nation of all necessary preparations for a free and fair election on Thursday (today) and invited voters to apply their voting rights."I am inviting all voters irrespective of religion and castes, to go to polling centers and cast their valuable votes to pave the way for establishing a effective democracy once again taking the opportunity of secured environment as on December 29 elections," CEC Huda said in his 30 minutes speech.Underlining the importance of the upazilla elections, CEC said, "Like others elections including national one, there is a great importance of the upazilla polls and commission hopes that people will exercise their franchise to establish their democratic rights," said Huda, adding, " I am assuring the voters of providing enough security so that they (voters) can cast their votes freely.""There is no force which can change the people's mandate. We have taken enough security measures including deployment of troops for smooth balloting. We strongly believe that post-polls environment will remain calm. We have identified the mistakes committed by the commission during December 29 parliament polls and hope that there will be no repetition of those mistakes in these elections," said Huda.He also warned against any attempt of vote rigging saying, "The EC will take stern action against any attempt of chaos in the elections."He underscored the need for decentralization of power, "If we want to establish rule of people, local bodies' autonomy and decentralizations of power through holding upazilla polls is a must to ensure service to the people.""In a bid to revive the upazilla system, I am inviting the voters once again across the country to go to polling centers to elect their respective representatives," CEC said, adding," As the upazilla Parishad is a direct service providing organization, so the elected representatives will have to be close to you."