The election of Dhaka North City and Dhaka South City Corporations, DNCC and DSCC, will be held at the end of December, with the possible date of Dec 30. On the other hand, Chattogram city election will be held mid-March next year, says several sources of the government and election commission.
It’s known that to celebrate 100 birth anniversary of the father of the nation Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and fifty years of independence, city corporation election may be held in advance. As a result, the government plans to complete election of three city corporations by December this year. The two Dhaka ones will be done since tenure of the current administration will be over while the one for port city will be in March, 2020.
The birthday of the father of the nation will be observed from Mar 17, 2020 and run till Mar 26, 2021.
The meetings for DSCC and DNCC were held on May 14 and May 17 respectively in 2015 with the Chattogram one held on Aug 6. By that account, DNCC will be eligible for elections on Nov 17 and DSCC on Nov 20.
City corporation law states that election can be held in the last 180 days before the tenure expires. Tenure period will be counted from first day of the meeting.
If the voting cannot be held in December then EC has to move to March because the new voter list to be out on Jan 1 will be finalised on Jan 31; on the other hand, Secondary School Certificate (SSC) exam will be held in February.
At the 47th meeting of the commission, decision was taken to use one hundred percent Electronic Voting Machines, EVMs, for DNCC and DSCC.
An EC official says: “There’s a signal to hold the election by December but no work has started in this regard as yet.
An influential Awami League leader adds: “There has been discussion within the party to hold the city corporation polls this year.”
Secretary of the department of local government, Helal Uddin Ahmed, said: “Nothing has been communicated from the ministry of local government about city corporation polls.”
Meanwhile, EC Secretary Md Alamgir said: “No letter has come from the government about the city corporation polls.”