The Election Commission is likely to announce the schedules for countrywide municipal elections today, said commission officials.
They said the commission is likely to arrange polls on December 30.
“Annual examinations in educational institutions will end in the first or second week of December and the Election Commission will be busy publishing the voter list in January,” said Election Commissioner Mohammad Zabed Ali.
“Bishwa Ijtema will be held in January and Secondary School Certificate tests will begin in February. Considering all these, municipality elections have to be held by December. That is why documents on the electoral code of conduct was sent to the Law Ministry for vetting,” he said.
The persons receiving government privileges, including ministers and lawmakers, will not participate in campaigns for the local government elections, said a commission official.
Election Commission Secretary Sirajul Islam said there is a chance that election schedules would be announced today if the Law Ministry returns the documents on election rules after completing its vetting process.
Independent mayoral candidates will have to collect signatures of 100 voters in their respective municipalities and submit the signatures along with nomination papers.
Political parties will be able to spend a maximum of Tk1 lakh in each municipality as per the proposed election rules.
On November 19, the parliament passed the Local Government (Municipality) (Amendment) Bill 2015, paving the way for arranging elections only for the mayoral posts in the municipalities on a partisan basis.
As per the amendment, candidates nominated by political parties registered with the Election Commission or independent aspirants will be able to contest mayoral polls in the country’s 324 municipalities.
But polls for the councillor posts, including the reserved seat councillor posts for women, will be held in non-partisan manners.