PM’s adviser, LGRD minister call on CEC
The local government elections, particularly the long overdue Dhaka City Corporation polls planned for December this year, are probably going to be deferred again.
The chief election commissioner, ATM Shamsul Huda, made this plain after a meeting with LGRD and cooperatives minister Syed Ashraful Islam and prime minister’s adviser HT Imam in the Election Commission secretariat.
‘There was a plan for acceptance of nomination papers for the polls in mid-December, but now it seems we have to change the schedule. We even need to think of how many elections we can hold by March next year,’ the CEC told reporters.
He said that lack of manpower and departure of some voters to perform Hajj were the main problems in conducting polls within the commission’s revised timeframe of holding elections by March.
‘Questions might be raised if some people cannot participate in the elections due to performing the Hajj so we should revise our schedule,’ said the CEC.
When he was asked outright whether the holding of the DCC polls in December has become uncertain, Shamsul Huda said, ‘We cannot say anything at this moment. New factors are coming into consideration.’
Referring to the lack of manpower, the CEC said that a number of files of the commission, including recruitment of more manpower, have been shelved in government offices. He said that the commission had asked the government to expedite the process of approving the files. He also said that the commission remains in some difficulty because of certain problems, but did not specify them.
The election commissioners, however, had repeatedly said that the commission remained prepared to conduct local government polls.
The CEC on Saturday reiterated that the DCC and municipal polls would be held in December.
Representatives of the government and ruling Awami League on Sunday called on the CEC and agreed to the Election Commission’s plan to hold the overdue elections to DCC and municipalities in December.
The election commission had earlier postponed the DCC polls planned for May 31 at the insistence of the government and Awami League. On April 15 it deferred the elections by five months at the request of the government. The government’s high-ups had apprised the EC of their desire to redraw the boundaries of the DCC ward constituencies before the polls. They had also asked the commission to defer the polls until winter.
The Awami League was against the holding of the polls at that time as the voters in Dhaka city were deeply annoyed at the shortage of power, water and gas, and the soaring prices of essentials that were making life difficult. The ruling party thinks that it can expect better results by holding the polls in winter when the demand for power falls.
