Polls to 100 upazilas likely next month
The Election Commission is likely to announce on Sunday the schedule for polls to around 100 upazila parishads to be held in late February, said an election commissioner yesterday.
"We have planned to hold the polls in phases considering law and order. We want to hold polls to more than 100 upazila parishads by the end of February," the election commissioner told some reporters asking not to be named.
The last election to around 480 upazila parishads was held on January 22, 2009. Tenure of more than 100 upazila parishads is set to expire in February. Around 223 upazila parishads will complete their tenure in March, 35 in April, 85 in May and 18 others in June this year.
Tenure of some more upazila parishads will expire in between July and September, officials at the EC Secretariat said.
As per the electoral laws, elections to the upazila parishads are held within 180 days before their tenure expires.
The EC officials said the commission had convened an inter-ministerial meeting on Saturday. Senior officials of the ministries of education and LGRD were asked to join the meeting, they added.
The Secondary School Certificate examination 2014 is supposed to begin on February 9.
"They have planned to announce on Sunday or Monday the schedule for the polls. Now we have to fix the polling date considering the SSC examination," Election Commissioner Shah Nawaz told reporters after an EC meeting that discussed the upazila parishad elections.
This time, the EC will have to hold polls to 487 upazila parishads which have around eight crore voters.
One chairman and two vice-chairmen including one post reserved for women will be elected to each upazila parishad.
Election to upazila parishad was first held in 1985 and then in 1990. After a long break, the last election was held in 2009, just two months into the ninth parliamentary polls.
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