Ehsanul Haque Jasim :The Election Commission (EC) is likely to announce the schedule for polls to some 246 municipalities by the end of November, official sources said. The Commission has already announced that they are taking preparation to hold the municipality polls in December. It is also thinking to include the candidates’ names with symbols in the ballot papers. The new voters can’t exercise their franchises if the polls to the 246 municipalities are held in December, as the updated voter list won’t be published within the time, the EC officials, adding that they wouldn’t wait for the updated voter list, as the polls to a number of municipalities have to be arranged immediately as per the law. “As tenure of some 250 municipalities will expire soon, we are legally bound to hold elections to these municipalities immediately. We have the plan to hold the elections in the municipalities in the third week of December,” said Election Commissioner Mohammad Shahnewaz. The EC is, however, yet to decide in how many phases the staggered elections will be held, said the election commissioner. As per section 20 of the ‘Local Government (Municipality) Act, 2009’, new elections must be held in a municipality within the last 90 days before the expiry of its tenure. More than 270 municipalities, out of the total 317, are going to complete their five-year tenures by March next year. The last elections to 261 municipalities were held in four phases from January 12-18 in 2011 under the commission headed by Dr ATM Shamsul Huda.The EC will have to change some relevant rules and code of conduct before the municipal polls in December, as the ‘Local Government (Municipality) Act, 2009’ is now being amended to hold the polls on party basis. The Cabinet on October 12 approved drafts seeking amendments to four laws and one ordinance, paving the way to hold the polls to local government bodies on party basis. About 450,000 new voters can’t exercise their franchises in the December municipality polls, as the EC will publish the final updated voter list on January 31, 2016.The EC in last July started updating voter lists in 189 upazilas and thanas of the country. It will make the draft updated voter list public on January 2 to receive complaints regarding the update and it will publish the final updated voter list on January 31 after disposing of complaints.According to field-level data received by the EC Secretariat as of September, enumerators collected the statistics of 39,28, 644 people in 546 upazilas. Of them, about 450,000 have been registered as new voters in the 246 municipalities. An official of the EC Secretariat said that updating voter list is a regular process. So, it is not mandatory that the elections to 246 municipalities will be held with new voters. EC’s Joint Secretary Jesmin Tuli said that now the commission is busy with different other necessary works to hold the December municipality polls in a credible manner. The commission is thinking to hold the polls with candidate’s name and symbol in the ballot paper, she said.
