DNCC, DSCC polls in January

The Election Commission (EC) is preparing to hold the elections of two city corporations in Dhaka as it has already completed holding upazila polls across the country.

The EC plans to hold the Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) and Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) elections in January next year. The schedule of the DNCC and DSCC polls will be announced in December. Besides, the EC will send a letter to the Local Government Division to know if there are any difficulties in holding the DNCC and DSCC elections. After receiving the answer, the commission will sit in a meeting about the two city polls.

The constitutional organization will decide whether the election will be held through EVMs or ballot papers before announcing the schedule. An EC official said the SSC and its equivalent examinations will be held in February next year. On the other hand, HSC examinations will be held in April. For this reason, the EC will have to hold DNCC and DSCC elections before SSC examinations. In this case, the elections might be held in mid-January or the last week of January. The commission is taking all kinds of preparations targeting this time frame.

Election Commission additional secretary Ashok Kumar Debnath told Bangladesh Pratidin that the elections in DNCC and DSCC won’t be held before January. There is enough time for holding two city polls. All necessary preparations will be taken in time.

The last election in DNCC and DSCC was held on February 1, 2020, through EVMs. The ruling Awami League and BNP took part in the polls with party symbols. However, the Awami League may not give party symbol this time. On the other hand, the BNP’s position about its participation in the polls is not clear yet.

EC officials said it is obligatory to hold the election before 180 days expire of current tenure as per the City Corporation Act. The tenure count begins from the first meeting of the city corporation. The first meeting of DNCC was held on June 2, 2020, and the first meeting of DSCC was held on June 3 of the same year. As such, the countdown of DNCC and DSCC will start on December 4 and 5 respectively, of the current year. The tenure of these two city corporations will end on June 1 and 2, respectively. The election commission can hold the polls on any day during the countdown.

Sources at the election commission said all preparations including forming a vote list are going on. The commission will send a letter to the LGRD ministry this month. The EC will take the initiative to increase the number of voters taking lessons from the just concluded upazila polls. The number of voters in the two city corporations was 5,463,467 during the last election. Of them, 3,009,000 voters were in DNCC and 2,452,000 voters were in DSCC.

@ The article was published on print and online versions of The Bangladesh Pratidin on July 3, 2024 and has been rewritten in English by Golam Rosul.