According to the newspaper report, EC has already prepared a preliminary list of the constituencies, and a farm has got work to ready the draft list in this regard. The report added that, EC would lay emphasis on keeping the upazilas and city corporation wards intact. It would also not bring any change in the number of constituencies, though there will be big changes in the boundaries of at least 63 constituencies. But a problem exists. Even if EC goes to re-fix the boundaries based on population dynamics; there will be major changes in the boundaries of at least 10 upazilas. At the same time, several unions of some constituencies will be included in other electoral areas. There are more hassles. The enclaves Bangladesh received from India will be included in some constituencies.
The re-fixing of boundaries is directly linked with the candidates’ election campaign, their development projects and vote casting. Earlier in 2013, the Rakibuddin Ahmad commission redrew the boundaries of 87 constituencies out of 300 across the country ahead of the 10th parliamentary elections. Prior to that, ATM Shamsul Huda Commission in 2008 brought massive changes to some 133 constituencies prioritising the population size, which had increased the number of Dhaka districts to 20 from 15 and Chittagong district to 16 from 14 ahead of the 9th National Election.
It is noteworthy that, EC is unable to redraw the constituencies in line with its roadmap, and for that reason it is going to accomplish its task as per the Delimitation of Constituencies Ordinance-1976. There may be additional dispute centering around the ordinance as well. The Awami League and BNP already have proposed to the EC to keep intact the present boundaries and go back to boundaries before 2008 respectively. But both the parties know it would be hard for EC to accept anyone’s proposal.
