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Govt to decide about UP polls today

STAFF CORRESPONDENT
The government has once again initiated steps to hold the much-talked about upazila parishad (UP) elections in an apparent bid to distract the opposition from its antigovernment movement.
The weekly meeting of the cabinet today is likely to discuss the UP elections and take a decision in this regard.
"As far as I am concerned, upazila parishad elections is the main topic of discussion in today's
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meeting and hopefully, a decision will be taken," Ziaul Haque Zia, state minister for local government rural development (LGRD) and cooperatives told The Daily Star yesterday.
The BNP-led coalition government since assuming office in 2001 has declared on several occasions to hold the UP elections, but there has not been any progress to this end as yet.
Political observers believe if the government declares the UP elections schedule, local leaders and grass roots workers of the opposition parties will busy themselves preparing for the polls, thus undermining the main opposition's efforts to rev up the anti government movement.
The state minister however dismissed such allegations. He said, "It is not true. The government has made the move for the polls in line with the High Court directives."
Since the introduction of the upazila system, two elections have been held, one in 1985 and the other one in 1990. Successive governments did not discharge the responsibility to hold the elections, instead they practised spin control on theissue.
Former military ruler HM Ershad had introduced upazila system. But the previous government of Khaleda Zia had cancelled the system after coming to powerin 1991.
Awami League (AL) government
revived the system in 1997, a year after it took the office. It, however, did not hold elections to the local government bodies.
The AL government had asked the EC to hold upazila elections in 2000 amidst an anti-government movement by the then BNP-led opposition. The EC had started preparing for the polls in line with the government directive. But in the end, no schedule was declared and no election held.
The present ruling allianceimmedi-ately after the onset of its rule had asked the EC to hold upazila elections. The alliance leaders also said that it would give the power to declare election schedule back to the EC by amending the existing law.
Following the assurances, the EC had announced a date to declare the upazila election schedule. But later as the government deviated from its words, the EC could not declare the schedule.
The BNP-led government then formed a cabinet committee on the upazila system, but senior ministers split over reintroducing the system. The differences over the issue have yet to be settled.
The BNP Standing Committee at a meeting in November last year informally agreed to hold the upazila elections.