With the completion of fresh delimitation of all the unions In the country, the Election Commission (EC) is now taking up programmes to readjust the voters list for the Union Parishad elections, according to sources In the EC and Local Government and Rural Development (LGRD) Ministry

The LGRD Ministry has Just completed delimitation of the 4.473 unions and has raised the number of wards tn each union to nine from three The number of members oi a union parishad will continue to remain nine

but everv ward will be represented by a member A member must be a registered voter In his ward, the sources said

The provision for three reserved seats for women in each union partshad, however, will remain the same An official ol the LGRD Ministry said that as per law the three women mem bers would be elected by the members and chairman-elect of the union parishad concerned

EC sources said they have sought an allocation of Tk 35 i rore from the government for readjusting the voters list In accordance with the new delim nation The readjustment pro cess is likely to be completed within a month There are about five crore voters in the unions

Moreover, the EC has re quested the Ministry of Finance to provide Tk 30 crore for con ducting the union parishad elections which might begin sometime between March and May next and continue to be held in phases as per expiry of the five year tenure of the parishads. an EC official said.

After readjusting the voters list, we have to update it and then announce the schedule for union partshad elections." he added

UP election

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The last union parishad elections had begun on January 22, 1992 and were held in phases over months. "The tenure of majority of the union Earishads will expire between larch and May next. So the elections to most of the parishads will be held during that period." an LGRD Ministry source said when asked about this.

The process of delimitation of the unions started in January this year in line with an amendment to Section 18 of the Local Government Union Parishad Ordinance. 1983. made on July 22. 1993. The amendment provided that the number of wards in each union parishad should be increased to nine from three.

"Although the system of local government has existed in our country for hundreds of years in different names, this is for the first time that we have delimited the areas taking into consideration geographical contiguity, administrative convenience and distribution of population." the LGRD Ministry