EC preparing to hold UZ polls tentatively on Oct 23

The Election Commission (EC) is taking preparations with a tentative date on October 23 for holding the upazila polls as per its earlier announcement, but the EC is yet to finalise in how many upazilas the elections will be held.(The Bangladesh Today)

Talking to the reporters at the EC secretariat yesterday EC Secretary Humayun Kabir also said that the forthcoming upazila polls is also non-political like the other local polls, but the political leaders would be able to participate in election campaign as per the verdict of the High Court.

He said there should not be any doubt over holding the upazila polls before the national elections and the EC would finalize the list of upazilas after a few days as everything depends on the completion of final voter list of those areas.

"As per the CEC's earlier announcement to hold the upazila polls on October 23, the EC is taking all-out preparations and now we are discussing the matter. But I am not able to say the final polling date and the number of areas, where the elections will be held," he said.

He said the number of upazilas going to the elections fully depends on preparation of the final voter list and that's why the commission could not finalize the number of the upazilas at this moment.

Referring to the newspaper report published on Wednesday that the upazila polls will be held in two phases, the EC secretary said the commission did not finalize whether the polls would be held in the phases or not. "It will be immature to say about that," he said.

About the Dhaka City Corporation election, Humayun Kabir said the EC has a plan to hold the DCC election after finalizing the voter-list. "We are yet to finalize the date of holding DCC election, but we have a plan to hold the DCC election before the national elections".

Meanwhile, the EC yesterday called upon the political parties to be registered through a notification in the country's leading national dailies for participating in the forthcoming general elections. But on the very first day, no political party made any contact with the EC for registration.

About the registration of political parties, EC Secretary said, "the EC on Wednesday asked the political parties to be registered with the commission and we hope that they might start applying from the next week."

The mandatory documents to be attached with application for registration included the name of party and address of central office, constitution of the party, election manifesto and rules of party, party logo and picture of party flag, names of all members of central executive committee or equivalent and their designation, bank account number of the party and current balance, description of party funding source and a treasury challan with a certain amount as registration fee.

It may be mentioned that at present only six political parties out of around 160 have registration with the EC Secretariat. Without registration these political parties are enjoying the facilities given by the EC.

Source : The Bangladesh Today