269 municipalities will go to polls, EC announces schedule
Elections to 269 municipalities out of 310 across the country will be held in a staggered manner in January 12-18 next year, the Election Commission announced on Thursday.
Of the remaining municipalities, the terms of 17 are yet to expire while there is a legal bar to holding elections to 24 municipalities, said chief election commissioner ATM Shamsul Huda while announcing the polls schedule at the commission secretariat.
As per the schedule, polling will be held in the municipalities under Rajshahi and Rangpur divisions on January 12, Khulna and Barisal divisions on January 13, Dhaka division on January 17 and Chittagong and Sylhet divisions on January 18.
The last date for submitting nomination papers in Rajshahi and Rangpur divisions is December 13, Khulna and Barisal divisions December 15, Dhaka division December 18 and in Chittagong and Sylhet divisions December 19.
Elections will be held to a total of 269 mayoral posts, 2,534 councillors and 874 reserved posts for women councillors. A total of 7,560,101 voters will cast votes in 3,405 polling centres.
The last such staggered municipal polls were held in May 5-10 in 2004. The elections to term-expired nine municipalities were held along with four city corporation elections in 2008. The law requires holding of municipal polls 180 days inside the expiry of its five-year tenure.
The CEC asked the people intending to contest the polls to remove the posters, leaflets and banners they had pasted on roadside walls greeting people on different occasions or seeking their blessings apparently using the occasions to campaign for the local polls.
‘Within three days of the announcement of the polls schedule, aspirant candidates should remove all the posters, banners and graffiti, otherwise the commission would take tough action; even nomination papers could be cancelled,’ the CEC said.
When asked about overdue elections to Dhaka City Corporation and union parishads, the lowest tier of local government, the CEC said the commission was planning to conduct the
union parishad polls in March or April. He, however, skipped the issue of the DCC polls.
A total of 27 municipalities in Rangpur division and 49 in Rajshahi division will go to polls. Scrutiny of nomination papers is scheduled for December 14-15 and withdrawal of nomination for December 26.
Nomination papers in 33 municipalities in Khulna division and 21 in Barisal division will be scrutinised in December 18-19. The last date for withdrawal of candidature is December 27.
A total of 70 municipalities in Dhaka Division will go to polls. Nomination papers would be scrutinised in December 20-21. Nomination papers can be withdrawn until December 27.
Nomination papers in 69 municipalities in Chittagong and Sylhet divisions would be scrutinised in December 22-23 and can be withdrawn by January 2.
The Election Commission earlier changed its plan for holding the polls several times. The EC could not hold union parishad polls in 2008 as political parties opposed holding of the local polls before the parliamentary elections. The commission revised its plan to hold the polls in mid-2009.
After announcing the schedule, Shamsul Huda advised the aspirant candidates to be careful on submitting nomination papers as some new provisions had been included in the electoral laws which every candidate should comply with.
He said an aspirant candidate would have to open a bank account for maintaining records of their sources of income and expenditure on election purposes. ‘Every candidate has to mention their bank account number and submit personal information in prescribed manners along with nomination papers,’ he said.
When asked whether army would be deployed in the municipal polls as in the new electoral laws they had been included in the definition of law enforcement agencies, the CEC said, ‘If needed, we would look into it.’ He, however, said he did not think at the moment it was necessary to deploy troops.
