Chief Election Commissioner KM Nurul Huda on Monday announced that the elections to the municipalities would be held in five phases beginning from December this year.
“The municipality polls will begin in the last week of December this year with voting in at least 20-25 municipalities.
"The elections would be completed in five phases by May 2021,” he said after emerging from a commission meeting held at the Nirbachan Bhaban in Dhaka's Agargaon area.
The Election Commission (EC) has a decision, in principle, to hold the elections to all municipalities using the electronic voting machines (EVMs), Huda added.
Decision on holding elections to the local government institutions, which has already been due, preparing election schedules for those and appointing returning officers (ROs) were taken in today’s meeting, he said.
According to commission sources, there are 329 municipalities across the country. There is a provision of holding elections to the municipalities 90 days before the expiry of the tenure.
After amendment to the Local Government Act in 2015, elections to 234 municipalities were held with partisan election symbols for the first time.
A total of 20 political parties took part in the polls.
