The Election Commission is set to announce this month the schedule for the first phase of polls to reserved posts for women members in 127 upazilas.
The Local Government and Rural Development Ministry has already completed the demarcation of these upazilas.
The commission will send a letter to the ministry this week, asking it to demarcate the boundaries in the rest of 360 upazilas as soon as possible, a senior assistant secretary told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday.
The election process will start after the commission gives its approval in a meeting scheduled to be held on Monday, he added.
However, the commission is yet to hold the polls to reserved posts for women members in just-concluded 471 upazilas across the country. Over 1,500 women will be elected from all upazila parishads. In the first phase of polls, 300 women will be elected as members in 127 upazila parishads.
Earlier, the tenure of the third upazila parishad expired without having women members as the commission did not hold the polls due to legal complexity. An amendment to Upazila Parishad Act was passed in parliament in March 2013.
Meanwhile, the commission had held polls to the posts for chairman, vice-chairman and women vice-chairman in 471 upazilas in six phases.
EC officials said the commission sent the letter to the ministry in May last year to delimit the areas in 487 upazilas. The ministry informed the EC that it had completed the demarcation of 127 upazilas.
Recently, Election Commissioner Abdul Mobarak sent a note to Chief Election Commissioner Kazi Rakibuddin Ahmad for holding the polls to the reserved posts.
According to Upazila Parishad Act 1998, the number of reserved posts for women members in a given upazila will be equal to the number of unions and municipalities in that upazila.
The members or councillors elected in reserved posts for women in union parishads or municipalities will contest the elections for reserved posts in upazila parishads.