No polls now to DCC, local govt bodies
The Election Commission has finally decided not to hold elections to the bifurcated Dhaka City Corporation or any other local government bodies before the next national election.
Election Commissioner Shah Nawaz said yesterday the commission is unable to hold the DCC elections, as the LGRD ministry has not yet completed demarcation of boundaries of the split DCC.
"Since the Local Government Division [LGD] says it will take more time to complete demarcation, it is not possible to hold DCC election now," he told journalists at the EC Secretariat in the capital.
"We have decided in principle not to hold election to any local government bodies as the national election is nearing."
In reply to a query, Nawaz said, "The division [LGD] does not want election to these bodies now."
He went on, "As the commission holds elections to the local government bodies only on request from the LGD, we cannot hold the elections if it does not want."
The LGRD ministry last month asked the EC not to move to hold due elections to eight municipalities on the grounds that demarcation of these municipalities was incomplete
Towards the end of last month, the ministry also asked the EC not to hold due elections to 33 upazila parishads, saying that it would not be right to hold these polls before the national election.
LGD Secretary Abu Alam Shahid Khan, however, denied the allegation of its unwillingness to hold elections to local government bodies, saying, "We definitely want election since polls to around 5,500 local government bodies were held during the tenure of the present government."
Contacted, he said, "Perhaps the commission is busy with the holding of the national election, and that is why it is unwilling to hold election to local bodies."
Asked when the DCC polls will be held, he said it will take four to five more months to complete demarcation of the boundaries.
Former election commissioner M Sakhawat Hossain, however, said the commission could have held the DCC election much earlier, but it did not do so for political reasons.
"Now it is not possible to hold the DCC election as the commission is busy preparing for the national election," he told The Daily Star.
The tenure of the undivided DCC expired on May 14, 2007. But the election could not be held due to the state of emergency at that time.
The previous EC headed by ATM Shamsul Huda had moved to hold the election on May 31, 2010, but to no avail.
On November 4, 2011, the government split the DCC into two and appointed two administrators to run them.
In April last year, the present EC announced that the DCC polls would be held on May 24 (last year). But a writ petition challenging the polls schedule led to postponement of the elections.
The High Court on May 13 this year cleared the way for holding the elections by vacating the stay it had earlier imposed on the polls.
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