The Election Commission (EC) is worried about the violence erupting in various parts of the country including the latest one at Natore ahead of the polls to local government bodies, the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) said yesterday.

The EC plans to hold polls to municipalities and Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) in December and union parishad elections across the country from next January.“Outbreak of such violence ahead of the local government bodies' election is not conducive to the polls. We will sit with the law enforcement agencies and ask them to improve law and order,” CEC ATM Shamsul Huda told reporters at the EC Secretariat.

He said the EC would meet to finalise the schedule for the polls to local government bodies which will begin from December.

“We have to declare the schedule by November, after which we will hold a meeting with the law enforcement agencies," he added.

The EC has drafted proposals to bring changes in the Representation of the People Order (RPO). A meeting was held yesterday afternoon with Mahmudul Islam, legal expert and former attorney general, to discuss the draft proposals.

On impending talks with the political parties and civil society members to seek their opinions on the reform proposals, the CEC said they planned to hold talks in the interim period between the elections.

The last elections to union parishads and municipalities held respectively in 2003 and 2005 were marked with severe violence, resulting in the death of more than 80 people.