DCC polls face further delay

The High Court yesterday once again extended its previous stay order on holding the Dhaka city corporation polls by three months, as the authorities neither implemented nor replied to its directives.
The elections to both the north and south city corporations were scheduled for May 24, as announced by the Election Commission on April 9.
Earlier on April 16, following a writ petition, the court had stayed the elections for three months as “the legal procedures” were not carried out beforehand.
Asaduzzaman Siddiqui, general secretary of Human Rights and Peace for Bangladesh, filed the writ petition the previous day.
On July 23, the court extended the original stay order for three more months.
Yesterday, the HC bench of Justice Naima Haider and Justice Muhammad Khurshid Alam Sarkar passed the order after hearing a petition to extend its previous stay order.
The fresh extension will be effective from October 23, as the previous extension order remains in force until that day, the petitioner's counsel Manzill Murshid told The Daily Star.
The court on April 16 directed that the EC must update the city corporations' voter lists and determine the number of wards and councillors with assistance of government authorities three months before the polls, said Manzill.
He added that the authorities have not implemented the HC directives.