Leaders must quit party post if elected to local govt: CEC

Political leaders holding party posts will have to resign from their positions if they get elected to local government bodies, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) ATM Shamsul Huda said yesterday.
Referring to the draft of new electoral laws on city corporations and municipalities, he categorically said the long due polls to upazila parishads must be held in between November and December this year as per the electoral roadmap.
The Election Commission (EC) in its proposal to free the local government bodies from partisan politics had said political leaders holding party posts would have to resign from their posts first to contest the local government elections.
"But the local government ministry has not agreed with us," CEC Huda yesterday said at a views-exchange meeting with a group of union parishad chairmen under the banner of Bangladesh Union Parishad Oikya Jote at the EC Secretariat conference room.
However, the EC and the government have reached an understanding that such political leaders will have to resign from their party posts before taking oath as elected representatives to the local government bodies, Huda added.
He said he enquired about the progress of formulating the electoral laws and was informed that the Council of Advisers to the caretaker government would finalise the laws this week.
"We will announce the schedule for holding polls to four city corporations and seven municipalities in May when the laws are finalised," the CEC said, adding, "We are ready for the elections, but we cannot proceed with the elections due to lack of laws."
Senior officials in the EC Secretariat said the restriction has been initially imposed for city corporations and municipalities and that similar restrictions would be included in the laws dealing with other local government bodies.
In response to the union parishad chairmen's demand for holding the long due polls to upazila parishads before the parliamentary polls, Huda said, "We will inform you soon whether the upazila elections would be held before or simultaneously with the parliamentary elections."
The president promulgated an amendment ordinance for the Upazila Parishads Act 1998 on April 7, giving back the authority to fix the time for upazila elections to the EC.
The CEC said the EC announced the electoral roadmap on July 15 last year considering all aspects and giving a tentative timeline for the local government elections and nobody raised any objection to it.
"But now, when we are seriously thinking about holding the local government polls, objections have been raised," Huda said, referring to the political parties' demand for not holding the local government elections before parliamentary polls.
Golam Sarwar Milon, coordinator of Bangladesh Union Parishads Oikya Jote, submitted to the CEC a six-point recommendation that includes holding upazila elections before the parliamentary polls and cancelling the permanent poll symbols in parliamentary elections.
In defence of their proposal for holding upazila elections before the national polls, the jote leaders said the political governments in the last 17 years did not hold the polls and they fear the future political government will also follow the footsteps of their predecessors.
"The Election Commission can begin holding upazila elections in areas where the voter lists are ready," said Mahbubur Rahman Tulu, a leader of the alliance.
Bangladesh Union Parishad Oikya Jote urged the CEC to initiate steps so the union parishad chairmen and members can contest elections to other local government bodies without resigning from their current posts.
A number of union parishad chairmen told the CEC about their miseries and shortage of resources.