The government has decided to allow only the mayoral and chairman candidates to use party symbols in municipality, upazila parishad and union parishad elections, shifting from its previous stance to make the polls partisan for all candidates.
LGRD and Cooperatives Minister Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain yesterday placed a bill titled Local Government (municipal) (amendment) law, 2014 in parliament incorporating the latest changes.
The bill was later sent to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on LGRD Ministry for scrutiny and the committee was asked to place the draft bill within three days.
The minister, earlier in the day, at his office hoped that the amendment would be passed on Wednesday.
The cabinet on November 9 approved a proposal for turning the Local Government (Municipality) (Amendment) Ordinance 2015 into an Act of parliament allowing registered political parties to nominate their candidates in the local body polls.
On October 12, the cabinet endorsed draft amendments to the local government laws incorporating provisions for allowing registered political parties to nominate their candidates in the local body elections.
When contacted, Minister Mosharraf yesterday said that it would be a tough and complicated task to select candidates for the councillor and the member posts whereas the number of mayoral and chairman candidates is not much less.
Election Commission sources said if mayor, councillor and reserved seat women councillors contested with party symbols, it might create confusion among the voters as the aspirants of the three categories would use the same party logo.
Apart from this, there is time constraint as ballot papers for each wards would be separate and have to be distributed within 10-12 days after the election schedule is announcement.
A cabinet member said seeking anonymity that the bill was placed hurriedly as the elections to around 240 municipalities are likely to be held by December 30.
