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Remove posters by midnight

EC asks DCC polls aspirants, warns of action over failure

Staff Correspondent
The Election Commission yesterday asked the Dhaka City Corporation mayoral and councillor aspirants to remove by midnight tonight the posters, billboards and banners, hung on the city streets for election campaign.
"If anybody fails to do so, the EC will take action in accordance with the electoral code of conduct," says a circular issued by the EC Secretariat.
The order came a day after the announcement that the polls to DCC North and DCC South will be held on May 24, and is intended to strictly enforce the electoral code.
The electoral code of conduct, which took effect after the announcement of the polls schedule, does not allow anybody to run an election campaign right now. After May 2, the last date for withdrawing candidacy from the race, the aspirants can launch campaigns. But they will need to use ropes to hang their posters at that time.
For violation of the code, an offender may be sentenced to up to six months in jail or fined Tk 50,000 or both. The EC may also cancel the candidacy.
Talking to reporters yesterday at his office, Election Commissioner Mohammad Shahnewaz said stern actions would follow for violation of the electoral code.
Meanwhile, some leaders of the ruling Awami League-led grand alliance and several independent hopefuls have already begun their election campaigns. They have been spending money on printing posters and making digital banners and pasting posters on walls and hanging banners on the city streets.
In doing so, they have taken advantage of the loopholes in the electoral code of conduct which does not allow the EC to take action against them before the announcement of the polls schedule.
So, from Monday the EC is having sweeping authority to stop such campaigns. The electoral code also bans graffiti and posters on the walls of houses and establishments.
The EC Secretariat yesterday sent the circular to the returning officers appointed to supervise the polls. The news media were also provided with copies of the circular.
"If there is any instance of violation of the electoral code of conduct, returning officers will take legal action," the circular says. The EC also asked the returning officers to take assistance from the police administration if needed against unauthorised campaigns.
The EC last week decided that 31 mobile courts would be operated by an executive magistrate each in the DCC area from May 3 to ensure that the candidates were fully complying with the electoral code during their campaigns, an EC senior official said.
Ninety-two more executive magistrates will join in on May 22, each to run a mobile court to try electoral offences until May 25. Another 31 judicial magistrates will be working in the DCC areas from May 22, he added.