United News of Bangladesh

Local Government, Rural Development and Co-operatives Minister Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir on Tuesday said the countrywide local government elections, to be held in phases, may begin in September or October this year after the end of the monsoon season. Replying to a question from ruling party lawmaker Md Mustafizur Rahman Babul (Jamalpur-3) during the question-answer session in Parliament with Speaker Hafiz Uddin Ahmad in the chair, he said the government plans to complete elections to all tiers of local government bodies within the next year. The minister said elections to Union Parishads, municipalities, Upazila Parishads, Zila Parishads and city corporations will be held gradually, subject to the availability of budgetary allocations. “The Union Parishad elections may be held first, followed by elections to other local government institutions in phases,” he said. Mirza Fakhrul also said elections to all 13 city corporations, including the newly established Bogura City Corporation, are expected to be completed within the same timeframe. Replying to another question from ruling party MP Mohammad Shamim Kaiser, he said the Local Government Division has already allocated Tk 6 lakh to each Upazila Parishad for constructing an inspection room within the Parishad premises for lawmakers and senior government officials. Responding to a question from reserved seat MP Nilufar Chowdhury Moni, the minister said the daily water demand in Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) and Dhaka South City Corporation currently stands at 3.2-3.25 billion litres, with fluctuations during summer and winter seasons. He said the present daily water production capacity of Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority (WASA) is around 2.95-3.0 billion litres. According to the minister, water is treated using advanced chemicals, including PAC, alum sulphate and chlorination, and supplied through the network only after quality testing in WASA laboratories in line with World Health Organization guidelines. He added that Dhaka WASA collects 40-50 water samples daily from different parts of the city and tests them against various parametres to ensure quality standards. In response to a question from reserved seat MP Selima Rahman, Mirza Fakhrul said household waste collection in the DNCC areas is currently carried out by private operators, who transport waste by vans to secondary transfer stations. He said efforts are underway to bring these operators under formal contracts with the city corporation. Once the contracting process is completed, the use of smaller covered vans for environment-friendly waste transportation will be considered. Replying to a question from reserved seat MP Nipun Roy Chowdhury, the minister said the government has taken steps to develop Version-2 of the Birth and Death Registration software. The upgraded system will include online payment facilities and blockchain-based tracking features, enabling authorities to identify any changes made to records and determine at which level such modifications occurred, he said. Mirza Fakhrul also said regular training is being provided for registrars and registration assistants across the country to simplify services and reduce public inconvenience.

Chief Election Commissioner AMM Nasir Uddin on Thursday said the Election Commission (EC) wants to conduct ‘bloodshed-free’ local government elections in a fair manner and urged all stakeholders to work together to build national unity in this regard. “We want a bloodshed-free local government election and will conduct it in a nice manner,” he said while addressing an event organised by the Asian Network for Free Elections (ANFREL) in a hotel in the city. The CEC called upon all the stakeholders to make efforts for making the nation united in this regard. He said the EC would launch a full-scale awareness campaign with the cooperation from development partners and would hold discussion with stakeholders. “We want to mobilise all and make them united so that we can give a fair local government election avoiding such conflicts (violence),” said Nasir Uddin. About the vote counting process during the February-12 general election, he said the election results of every constituency, even every polling station-wise result are still in the EC’s website and anyone can examine if there is discrepancy in the polls results. “You can see whether there is any discrepancy in the polling station-wise results,” said Nasir Uddin. According to the EC, preparations are underway to hold elections to 4,581 Union Parishads, 61 Zila Parishads, 495 Upazila Parishads, 330 municipalities, and 13 city corporations. As part of the preparation, the EC is now updating the electoral code of conduct in line with laws about city corporations, municipalities, zila parishads, upazila parishads and union parishads. The EC would conduct the elections to the local government bodies on request from the Local Government Division. State Minister for LGRD Mir Shahe Alam has recently said the phased local government elections are likely to start after the monsoon season, beginning in September or October this year.

The Election Commission has asked its field-level officers to send updated information over all the local bodies as part of preparations for holding local government elections across the country. The EC on Tuesday sent a letter to its regional election officers and district election officers to send back the updated information regarding city corporations, municipalities, Zila Parishads, Upazila Parishads and Union Parishads. City corporation elections after Ramadan: EC Masud The Commission asked the field-level officials to send the date of last election, the date of the first meeting of the elected bodies and the expiry date of an elected representatives in every local government bodies to the EC Secretariat by March 15 next. Besides, the EC sought if there is any complication related to boundary demarcation, ward distribution and voter list or legal issues as well as the court’s stay order concerning any local government body. The officials were directed to send the information in the specific formats on an urgent basis by March 15. According to the local government laws, the five-year tenure of a local government body begins with the first meeting of the elected representatives, and elections must be held within 180 days before the expiry of the tenure. Following the fall of the Sheikh Hasina-led government on August 5, 2024, many elected representatives of city corporations, municipalities, upazila parishads and union parishads either went into hiding or were arrested. So, citing disruption in civic services due to the absence of elected representatives, the then interim government later removed the representatives of 12 city corporations, 330 municipalities, 497 upazila parishads and 61 Zila parishads (excluding three CHT districts). Administrators were subsequently appointed in many local bodies, including the 12 city corporations. However, BNP leader Shahadat Hossain, who had been second in the mayoral election, later became the mayor of Chattogram City Corporation following a court order. Following the 13th national election, the newly formed BNP government on February 23 last appointed administrators to six city corporations – including Dhaka South City Corporation, Dhaka North City Corporation, Khulna City Corporation, Gazipur City Corporation, Narayanganj City Corporation and Sylhet City Corporation.