DCC elections not possible this year

The long overdue elections to the bifurcated Dhaka city corporations will not be held before the upcoming parliamentary polls.
The Local Government Division needs six more months to complete the demarcation and inclusion of new areas in the city corporations, LGD Secretary Abu Alam Md Shahid Khan told The Daily Star on Saturday.
This means the LGD will take the rest of the year to complete the process. The parliamentary election, on the other side, is supposed to be held at the end of 2013.
The Election Commission now cannot move as per its plan to go ahead after Ramadan for holding the DCC polls. The last election to the undivided DCC was held in 2002.
Four Supreme Court lawyers have meanwhile filed two writ petitions with the High Court seeking its directives on holding the DCC elections without further delay.
EC officials have repeatedly been saying they cannot hold the DCC polls until the LGD completes the demarcation.
"We will hold the elections. But the LGD will have to create the ground to that end," said Election Commissioner Shah Nawaz on several occasions.
New areas were included in DCC South and the process of incorporating new areas in DCC North is underway, the LGD secretary said.
"If any attempt is made to hold the elections by excluding those areas, it may lead to legal complications. The residents of these areas might go to court challenging the polls. So, it is not possible to hold the elections without solving these issues," the secretary claimed.
Former election commissioner M Sakhawat Hossain, however, believes it is not very difficult to remove the barriers. The commission might be facing political pressure from the government not to hold the elections, he predicts.
Local government expert Dr Tofail Ahmed said the excuses the EC shows are not a major problem. The major factor for holding the DCC elections is political will, he added.
Political analysts say the government is not interested in holding the polls after its debacle in five city corporation elections in June and July. Policymakers of the ruling Awami League fear the candidates they support may not win in the DCC polls if they are held now, analysts observe.
The government had earlier thwarted an EC move for almost similar reasons. The previous EC led by ATM Shamsul Huda moved to hold the polls on May 31, 2010. But the government did not let it do that.
Earlier on November 4, 2011, the government split the DCC into two and appointed two administrators to run them.
The present EC in April 2012 announced that the polls would be held on May 24, 2012. But a writ petition challenging the polls schedule led to a postponement of the elections.
The High Court on May 13, 2013 cleared the way for the elections to be held by vacating the stay it had earlier imposed on the polls.
The EC again moved to hold the polls, but the LGD has created new grounds leading to a further delay in the holding of the polls.
The LGD on May 30 issued a gazette notification including Sultanganj in ward No. 57 of DCC South.
The EC rejected the demarcation showing technical faults and sent it back to the LGD asking it to demarcate the area afresh.
Besides, a process of bringing some areas from Sector 11-14 of Uttara under the city corporation remains underway. The Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (Rajuk) has already handed over these areas to the city corporation authority.
Residents of Niketon, Rupnagar, Turag, Dakkhinkhan, Batara, Pallabi, Banasree and some other areas have appealed to the LGD to be included in DCC North.
WRIT PETITIONS
Two writ petitions were filed yesterday in connection with holding the DCC polls as soon as possible.
The HC, after concluding hearings on the petitions, fixed today for passing orders.
The SC lawyers urged the HC to direct the government and the EC to inform it as to what steps they had taken for holding the polls.
Barrister Golam Nabi and advocate Mostafa Ahmed filed a petition in favour of polls to Dhaka North City Corporation. Advocate Md Alamgir Hossain and advocate Mirza Al Mahmood filed another writ for elections to Dhaka South City Corporation.