A petition has been filed with the High Court seeking a stay on the upcoming Dhaka City corporations polls slated for Feb 1.

Supreme Court lawyer Yunus Ali Akand filed the writ on Wednesday (Jan 22).

He said that it will be presented in the court of Justice JBM Hassan and Justice Md Khairul Alam on Thursday (Jan 23).

The law and local government secretaries, chief election commissioner and returning officers of the two Dhaka city corporations have been made respondents in the writ.

According to the petition, the laws dictate that in order to contest the polls, independent mayor candidates must be backed by at least 300 voters. However, the same provision does not exist for the party candidates which is in violation of articles 7, 19, 26, 27, 28 and 31 of the Constitution.

Moreover, there is no provision to postpone the election without announcing a new polls schedule, it said.

The petition said that the voter list must be updated from Jan 2 to Jan 31 but the draft list was published on Jan 20 depriving new voters of being able to vote.

It added that the term of a mayor should be five years from the first meeting but this year the schedule was announced six months early.