Govt mulls local body polls before general elections

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The interim government is seriously thinking of holding elections to the city corporations and municipalities before the general elections, so the Election Commission is going to prepare the voters’ rolls of these areas on a priority basis, said official sources.
‘We have requested the Election Commission to hold elections to three city corporations that include Dhaka, Rajshahi and Khulna, along with 44 municipalities after preparation of the voters’ lists on a priority basis in those areas where the elections have been overdue,’ LGRD and cooperatives adviser Anwarul Iqbal told reporters at the Secretariat on Tuesday.
He, however, said the responsibility of announcing the schedule of the upazila parisad elections would be soon vested on the Election Commission. ‘At present, the LRGD ministry is responsible for announcing the schedule but the process of handing over this responsibility to the EC is in progress.’
Election Commissioner M Sakhawat Hussain told New Age on Tuesday that they would complete the voters’ lists in those areas soon since the elections to the local government bodies would be held first. ‘Obviously, the elections to the local government bodies, the tenures of which have expired, will be held before the general elections,’ he told reporters.
The chief adviser, Fakhruddin Ahmed, had earlier declared that the general elections would be held before the end of 2008.
The tenures of the Dhaka City Corporation, the Khulna City Corporation and the Rajshahi City Corporation and 44 municipalities have already expired, said adviser Iqbal, adding that the elections to the local bodies could not be held as the voters’ roll is yet to be prepared.
‘The Election commission has informed us that the voters’ roll can be prepared area-wise and the elections to the local government bodies would be given priority,’ the adviser told reporters.
An official of the local government division told New Age that the EC was informed three months back of the expiry of the tenures of the local government bodies.
According to existing rules, the EC is obliged to hold elections to the three city corporations between January and June this year as the tenure of the present Dhaka City Corporation expired on May 14. The tenure of the Rajshahi City Corporation expired on June 16, and Khulna City Corporation’s tenure will expire on June 26 this year.
As per the laws, the five-year tenure of a city corporation is counted from the day it holds its first meeting, and elections to these local government bodies are supposed to be held 180 days before the expiry of their tenures.
The first meeting of the Dhaka City Corporation was held on May 15, of Rajshahi on June 17 and of Khulna on June 27 in 2002. The last election to the DCC was held on April 24, 2002, and elections to the RCC and the KCC were held on April 25.
All elections including the January 22 parliamentary polls were suspended after the declaration of a state of emergency on January 11.

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