The Election Commission (EC) is reportedly considering to organise the second phase of elections to remaining municipalities in March.
Local government polls were held on party lines for the first time in Bangladesh at 234 municipalities out of 323 on December 30. Re-polls will be held at 20 municipalities on Jan 12.
An election commissioner, seeking anonymity told the Dhaka Tribune on Friday that the EC would meet shortly after the re-polls to discuss the second phase of municipal election.
The municipalities in this phase will include those where the mayor's tenure will end in April and May.
But in March, the coastal unions will go to polls in the first phase of the Union Parishad (UP) while election to other UPs will be held between May and July, he said.
The EC is amending electoral codes and has already received lists of 4,544 unions from Local Government Division that are ready for holding election.
Several EC officials said they preferred organising polls to remaining municipalities simultaneously with the UP election.
“We will discuss this possibility,” an election commissioner said.
A senior EC official told the Dhaka Tribune that the second phase may be pushed back to May if the remaining municipalities did not go to polls by March.
However, several officials claimed elections would be held to at least 20 municipalities in March.
EC officials said they were looking for a suitable time for the polls as the SSC and HSC examinations are scheduled for February and April respectively.
“We will make sure the UP election's timing would not trouble the examinees and that we will get enough election officials for polls duty,” the election commissioner added.
