The Election Commission (EC) is mulling increasing the collateral of mayoral and councillor candidates multiple times in the upcoming Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) and Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) polls. Besides, it is planning no conditions for independent candidates. There will be no condition to submit the signatures of 300 voters to become an independent mayoral candidate. Any city dweller can participate in the electoral contest as an independent candidate for the post of mayor. The EC will sit in a meeting next week to amend the existing laws.     

EC officials said, according to the City Corporation Elections Act, a party certificate is required to be a mayoral candidate of a political party. On the other hand, the list of 300 voters of the concerned city corporation has to be submitted to the returning officer along with the nomination paper to be an independent mayoral candidate. The Election Commission is thinking of removing this condition for an independent candidate.

Contacted, Election Commission Additional Secretary Ashok Kumar Debnath told Bangladesh Pratidin that nothing can be said about law reform yet.

According to the City Corporation Elections Act, currently, the collateral of a mayoral candidate is Tk 20,000 for up to 5 lakh voters, Tk 30,000 for up to 10 lakh voters, Tk 50,000 for up to 20 lakh voters and Tk 1 lakh for more than 20 lakh of voters at a city corporation. The commission is thinking of increasing this amount multiple times.

On the other hand, collateral of a councillor candidate is Tk 10,000 for up to 15 thousand voters, Tk 20,000 for up to 30 thousand voters, Tk 30,000 for up to 30-50 thousand voters and Tk 50 thousand for more than 50 thousand of voters at a city corporation ward. The collateral of reserved women councillor candidates is Tk 10,000.  

Meanwhile, the EC is preparing to hold the elections of two city corporations as it has already completed holding upazila polls nationwide.

The EC plans to hold the DNCC and 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. EC officials 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 polls might be held mid-January or the last week of January. The commission is taking all kinds of preparations targeting this time frame.

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 BNP’s position about participating in city polls this time 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 underway. 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 11, 2024, and has been rewritten in English by Golam Rosul.