As many as 268 candidates vying for councillors for the Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) and Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) have withdrawn their candidacy from the election.
“The Election Commission (EC) declared 460 candidates valid for councillor elections. Of them, 125 have withdrawn,” Abdul Baten, the returning officer of DSCC, told media on Thursday (Jan 9).
“A total of 102 candidates were cleared for women's reserved councillor election and 20 of them pulled out of the race,” he added.
The returning officer of DNCC, Md Abul Kashem said, as many as 123 candidates have withdrawn their nominations from the Dhaka North polls.
Among them, 12 candidates were contesting for women’s reserved councillor polls and 111 for general councillor, he added.
According to the returning officers, polls symbols to aspirants will be allotted on Friday (Jan 10).
No mayoral candidates of the city polls have retracted nominations.
Elections to the Dhaka North and South city corporations are slated for Jan 30. The commission has said that the entire balloting will be held through electronic voting machines (EVMs).
Along with electing the mayors, voters in North will also elect 54 ward councillors and 18 reserved women councillors while in South 75 ward councillors and 25 reserved women councillors.