Staff Reporter :Elections to around 600 Union Parishads (UPs) out of 4,500 UPs will be held in March in first phase. The Election Commission (EC) said that the UP elections would also be held under political banner. Election Commissioner Mohammad Shahnewaz on Tuesday said that the first phase of the Union Parishad elections in the country would be held by March under political banner. He said it while talking to journalists at his office in the Election Commission’s Secretariat in the city in the afternoon. Shahnewaz said that the polls schedule would be declared in mid-February. The elections to the other Union Parishads will be held in phase by phase by July. The candidates contesting for Chairman post may use the party symbol, but the member candidates can’t do it. The EC has already started amending the electoral rules and the electoral code of conduct for the upcoming UP elections. The preparations began after the EC recently received a list of 4,544 Unions from the Local Government Division. The Unions are ready to go to polls. “We will bring amendment in election law and changes in the electoral code of conduct to hold the UP election under party banner,” said Shahnewaz. The MPs would not be able to take part in the election campaigns.Elections to the coastal unions will be held in March.
