Govt can appoint administrators for all local bodies

The cabinet yesterday approved proposals for amending the local government laws to empower the government to appoint administrators for running municipalities, and upazila and union parishads if elections to the local bodies are not held in time. 

It also endorsed the proposal for bringing changes to the laws for making elections to all local bodies partisan.

The approval came at a cabinet meeting chaired by the prime minister.

According to the existing laws, even after expiry of the tenure, chiefs and members of the three local bodies can continue in office until fresh elections are held.

But once the laws are amended, they will no longer get this opportunity.

Cabinet Secretary M Musharraf Hossain Bhuiyan disclosed the cabinet decisions at a press conference.

"The proposed amendments have curtailed all scopes for elected local representatives to continue in his or her position on any plea after the expiry of the tenure," he said.

"The government will try to hold elections regularly, and in case of any complexity, an administrator will be appointed for an interim period," said the cabinet secretary.

At present, the government has the power to appoint administrators to zila parishads and city corporations. Exercising the power in December 2011, the government appointed ruling AL men as administrators to 61 zila parishads.

Since 2011, it also appointed more than a dozen government officials as administrators to the two Dhaka city corporations.

On the cabinet's approval to the proposal for making local body polls partisan, Musharraf said, "The government has decided to bring the changes to the local government system for the empowerment of elected representatives at grassroots level and the development of political and democratic culture in the country."

Local government polls are held on the basis of party nominations in major parliamentary democracies such as the UK and India, he said.

As per the proposed amendments, aspirants will be able to contest the local body polls either as nominated candidates of any political party registered with the Election Commission or as independent candidates, said Musharraf.

As the municipality elections draw near and parliament is not in session, the president could promulgate an ordinance to amend the municipality laws, he added.

The municipality polls are scheduled to be held in December.

AL sources said party leaders believe if local body elections are made partisan, it will help the party minimise intra-party conflicts and reduce the number of rebel candidates during polls.

Since 2009, the AL couldn't achieve desired success in local body polls because of its rebel candidates. This was the case also in the upazila elections held between February and March last year, they added.

At yesterday's cabinet meeting, Prime Minister and AL President Sheikh Hasina said tough action would be taken against the party's grassroots leaders if any of them contests the upcoming municipality elections defying party decisions, said sources.

The party would nominate only one candidate against each post in the polls and all in the party have to accept the decision, she told the meeting.

The next AL council would bring changes to the party constitution following the amendment to the local government laws, she said.

The existing AL constitution provides for a Parliamentary Board, headed by the party chief, which nominates party leaders for contesting parliamentary elections. Now, the party will have to form parliamentary boards from upazila to district level to nominate party men for local body polls.

Before amending the party constitution, the AL office will issue an order to this effect, according to sources.

PM ON FOREIGNERS' KILLING

At the cabinet meeting, the PM advised her colleagues to remain vigilant about "a conspiracy" against the government centring the recent killings of two foreigners, said sources.

Referring to some countries' alert over possible militant attacks in Bangladesh and advice for their nationals to limit movement here, the PM asked the ministers to "publicise militant activities in the countries that issued the red alert", a minister, who attended the meeting, told The Daily Star.