The Election Commission (EC) is in the state of uncertainty as to whether it will be able to hold two Dhaka City Corporations’ (DCCs) polls during the present government’s tenure, sources in EC said.
The government’s indifference to delimitation is taken to be the main reason behind the EC’s uncertainty.
The EC requested the government several times for accelerating delimitation to pave the way for the elections but in vain.
Besides, the EC, in its current fiscal year (2014-15) budget, did not keep any allocation for the polls. “There is hardly any possibility of DCCs polls during this government’s term. There was no discussion about the elections in EC’s meeting held in June though the matter was on the agenda”, a senior officer of the EC told an online news agency not to be named.
The latest caretaker government and the Awami League led 14-party alliance government separately took initiatives for the elections but there was no further progress due to the law complexities.
On November 30 in 2011, the DCC was split into Dhaka South City Corporation with 56 wards and Dhaka North City Corporation with 36 wards.
Then to look after the two DCC affairs, the government appointed administrators but they have failed to serve the purposes.
The latest DCC election was held in 2002 and its tenure ended in 2007.
The High Court (HC) rejected a writ filed challenging the split of the DCC on May 23 last year.
Later, the ‘boundary delimitation’ became necessary for inclusion of 13 areas of Sultanganj Union Parishad in DSCC.
The EC also took steps to hold DCCs polls in 2013 but it was stuck up with the delimitation complexity.
EC Commissioner M Shahnewaz said that the complexity to hold the DCCs polls still prevails. The Local Government appears cool although the EC looked sharp on the issue.
The elections are possible once the complexity of the delimitation was over, he added.
An officer of Budget Division of EC said that the EC allocated Tk 78 crore in its current budget for holding Chittagong City Corporation, and some other polls, but no amount for the DCCs.
He said, an amount of Tk 40 crore is required to hold the two DCCs elections.
