Elections to the bifurcated Dhaka City Corporations are likely to be held after Eid-ul-Fitr and the Election Commission (EC) will take a decision in this regard soon, said election commissioner M Shah Nawaz.
“The elections to Dhaka South and North City Corporations are likely to be held after Eid-ul-Fitr,” Shah Nawaz told UNB over phone on Tuesday.
Asked whether they are facing any difficulty over holding the polls, the Election Commissioner said the area of Sultanganj, a new union under Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC), has not yet demarcated, which is mandatory for holding polls as per the City Corporation Act 2009.
He said problems may arise if the commission announces election schedules disregarding the law.
Asked about the matter, Local Government Division (LGD) secretary Abu Alam M Shahid Khan, however, is of the view that the Election Commission can arrange the polls excluding Sultanganj from the DSCC area. “There’s no bar to holding the polls excluding the area (Sultanganj),” he said.
The secretary said they are ready to cooperate with the EC in holding polls, if needed. “But, it’s the duty of the Election Commission to hold the elections.”
Asked if there is any legal bar to holding polls in Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC), Shah Nawaz said they want to hold elections in the two Dhaka City corporations the same day.
The legal hurdles towards holding elections to the bifurcated Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) was over as the High Court discharged the rule it earlier issued upon a writ petition challenging the election process on May 13.
On April 16 last year, upon a PIL writ petition challenging the validity of the election schedule, the High Court stayed all the actions over holding elections to the bifurcated DCCs slated for May 24 and asked the EC t
Source: UNBConnct
The EC has been playing a fiddle at the hand of the present govt. The CEC was supposed to have some spine to do the job as desired by the ‘people’. But no, the present CEC is vacillating on the DCC election at the beckoning of the govt and since the power party thiks that its candidate has the least chance to win here, they are not going to hold DCC election whether the constitutional provision for elected representation in the local govt bodies be trampled or not. Just look at the irony and also the hypocrisy of the govt. The 15th amendment says, as we hear, violation of constitution will amount to ‘sedition’, the present govt, which brought in the amendment, is continually trampling the constitutional provisions with remarkable ease. What a joke!.