The Election Commission is still waiting for a government gazette notification to hold election of the bifurcated Dhaka City corporation.
In a recent cabinet meeting, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has reportedly given go ahead to holding the Dhaka City Corporation polls this winter, in February next year to be specific.
Election Commission (ECC) officials said it all depends on when the Local Government Ministry publishes an amended gazette notification.
“We are always ready to hold the polls. But it has not been possible due to a delay in getting the amended gazette centring the inclusion of a new ward in Sultanganj under the Dhaka South City Corporation,” Election Commissioner Mohammad Abdul Mobarak told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday.
In June last year, Chief Election Commissioner Kazi Rakibuddin Ahmad also said: “If the gazette is amended, the EC will announce the schedule.” According to sources, the EC had asked officials of the LGRD Ministry to amend the gazette by June 3 last year.
When contacted, Local Government Division (LGD) Secretary Manjur Hossain told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday: “The process of solving the complication centring demarcation of the two city corporations’ areas is under way now. Apart from this, others problems will also be solved soon.”
Asked how soon it can be, Manjur, who was present at the cabinet meeting, said it cannot be predicted accurately. But he said they would discuss how polls could be held immediately.
Following drawn-out bickering between the EC and the ministry over the inclusion of 13 new areas in Sultanganj to DSCC, the ministry on May 30 published a gazette announcing the areas as Ward 57, a new ward, and suggested that the seats be put under the reserved women councillor seats of Ward 19.
The EC wanted an amendment because there was a language error in the gazette.
Citing a section from the Local Government (City Corporation) Act 2009, an election commissioner explained that when announcing the new ward, the ministry should have mentioned “amending the first schedule to include new areas in the city corporation” in the gazette.
He also said the EC had already started making preparations for holding the polls.
On May 13 last year, the High Court withdrew its stay order on holding the split DCC polls.
Six days later, the LGRD Ministry sent a letter to the EC asking for holding the polls excluding the 13 new areas. But the EC refused, saying legal complications might arise.
The Dhaka City Corporation was split on November 29, 2011, through the passage of a bill that amended the 2009 local government act. The then-mayor Sadek Hossain Khoka and 92 ward councillors left their offices after the amendment and the government subsequently appointed two administrators for the Dhaka North and South City Corporations.
The last election of DCC was held in April 2002. Awami League, then main opposition, did not participate, and Khoka, then a minister of BNP government, became mayor.
