The ruling Awami League will announce its mayoral candidates for the elections to the Dhaka North and South city corporations on Sunday (Dec 29).
Its Local Government Nomination Board, chaired by party President and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, held a meeting on Saturday (Dec 28), when it also interviewed the mayor aspirants.
"We are going through ins and outs of the aspirants' profiles. The party chief is checking with her own sources as well as inputs from intelligence agencies are also with us. Going through all of those is taking a bit time," General Secretary Obaidul Quader told the media after the meeting.
Awami League's pick for mayoral candidates will be announced on Sunday at the party chief's Dhanmondi offices, he said before adding names of councillor candidates backed by the party will be also disclosed.
A total of 20 people -- 12 for Dhaka North and eight for South -- have sought the Awami League ticket for the elections.
Meanwhile, the BNP has announced its candidates for the mayoral race. Ishraque Hossain and Tabith Awal will run for mayor in the elections to the bifurcated Dhaka city corporations.
Ishraque will run for Dhaka South City Corporation mayor’s post while Tabith for North.
On Dec 22, the Election Commission announced the schedule for the polls fixing Jan 30 for voting.
According to it, aspirants have until Dec 31 to submit their nomination papers. The nominations will be verified on Jan 2 while the deadline for withdrawing from the race ends on Jan 9.
The 180-day countdown for the commission to complete elections has the already started as the terms of the Dhaka North mayor and councillors ends on May 13, 2020, while the tenure of South city mayor and councillors completes on May 16, 2020.
According to the EC, the two city corporations have over 5.4 million voters — 3.35 million in North city and 2.37 million in South city. Along with electing the mayors, North city voters will also elect 54 ward councillors and 18 reserved women councillors while voters in South will elect 75 ward councillors and 25 reserved women councillors.
