Staff Reporter :
Country’s first-ever district council election will be held on December 28, as the tenure of incumbent unelected predecessors is set to end.
Chief Election Commissioner Kazi Rakibuddin Ahmad made the announcement of the polls schedule at the EC Secretariat in the city on Sunday.
Out of the country’s 64 districts, 61 will go to the polls as the three Chittagong Hill Tracts districts — Rangamati, Khagrachhari and Bandarban — will see no election.
As per the schedule, the deadline for filing nominations for posts of chairman, reserved and general members is December 1. The commission will scrutinise nomination papers on December 3 and 4. The last date of withdrawing nomination papers is December 11 while the election symbols will be distributed on December 12.
With the provision of government-appointed chairmen, the then military dictator HM Ershad introduced the District Council Law in 1988. Citizens have only voted once for polls in the district council in 1989 for the three Chittagong hill districts. The law, however, was repealed by the Awami League government in 2000 allowing elected representatives.
In December 2011, the government appointed district-level Awami League leaders as administrators for 61 district councils.
Though the first election to district councils was held during HM Ershad’s regime, the Jatiya Party chairman no longer seems to think it matters. Speaking at a programme in Dhaka on Sunday, Ershad said his party will not take part in the polls scheduled for Dec 28. “We will not participate in the district council elections. Because this election is worthless,” he said.
Expressing dissatisfaction over previous polls scenario, he further said: “The Union Parishad elections ended in 145 deaths. We do not believe in the politics of violence.”
Ershad speaking at a function said his party, now in opposition, will take part in the 2019 general election.
As for the next Election Commission, he said: “There needs to be a pragmatic EC following talks with parties in Parliament. Those who are not in Parliament have no right to talk about it.
On the other hand, the BNP, which boycotted the last general election, said it will not participate in the district polls. It opposed the method of the election, claiming it was ‘unconstitutional’ to elect district representatives without direct polling.
BNP chief Khaleda Zia has recently made public the party’s 13-point proposal for the next Election Commission to take office from February next year. All the public representatives of the local government bodies under a district concerned will elect the 21-member representative of a district council that would comprise a chairman, 15 general members and five women members from reserved seats.
All mayors, councillors and reserved councillors of city corporation (if any) and pourasavas, chairmen and vice chairmen of upazila parishads, chairmen, members and reserved members of the union parishads are voters in the elections.
There are 1,281 posts for election in the 61 district councils.
According to the laws, only the elected representatives of different local government bodies — city corporations, upazila parishads and union parishads — will vote to elect a chairman, 15 general members and five women members in each district council.
Country’s first-ever district council election will be held on December 28, as the tenure of incumbent unelected predecessors is set to end.
Chief Election Commissioner Kazi Rakibuddin Ahmad made the announcement of the polls schedule at the EC Secretariat in the city on Sunday.
Out of the country’s 64 districts, 61 will go to the polls as the three Chittagong Hill Tracts districts — Rangamati, Khagrachhari and Bandarban — will see no election.
As per the schedule, the deadline for filing nominations for posts of chairman, reserved and general members is December 1. The commission will scrutinise nomination papers on December 3 and 4. The last date of withdrawing nomination papers is December 11 while the election symbols will be distributed on December 12.
With the provision of government-appointed chairmen, the then military dictator HM Ershad introduced the District Council Law in 1988. Citizens have only voted once for polls in the district council in 1989 for the three Chittagong hill districts. The law, however, was repealed by the Awami League government in 2000 allowing elected representatives.
In December 2011, the government appointed district-level Awami League leaders as administrators for 61 district councils.
Though the first election to district councils was held during HM Ershad’s regime, the Jatiya Party chairman no longer seems to think it matters. Speaking at a programme in Dhaka on Sunday, Ershad said his party will not take part in the polls scheduled for Dec 28. “We will not participate in the district council elections. Because this election is worthless,” he said.
Expressing dissatisfaction over previous polls scenario, he further said: “The Union Parishad elections ended in 145 deaths. We do not believe in the politics of violence.”
Ershad speaking at a function said his party, now in opposition, will take part in the 2019 general election.
As for the next Election Commission, he said: “There needs to be a pragmatic EC following talks with parties in Parliament. Those who are not in Parliament have no right to talk about it.
On the other hand, the BNP, which boycotted the last general election, said it will not participate in the district polls. It opposed the method of the election, claiming it was ‘unconstitutional’ to elect district representatives without direct polling.
BNP chief Khaleda Zia has recently made public the party’s 13-point proposal for the next Election Commission to take office from February next year. All the public representatives of the local government bodies under a district concerned will elect the 21-member representative of a district council that would comprise a chairman, 15 general members and five women members from reserved seats.
All mayors, councillors and reserved councillors of city corporation (if any) and pourasavas, chairmen and vice chairmen of upazila parishads, chairmen, members and reserved members of the union parishads are voters in the elections.
There are 1,281 posts for election in the 61 district councils.
According to the laws, only the elected representatives of different local government bodies — city corporations, upazila parishads and union parishads — will vote to elect a chairman, 15 general members and five women members in each district council.
