FROM PAGE 1

He told reporters in Dhamrai that the commission’s main focus was on the parliamentary election.

“We have not received any request from the government regarding local elections,” he added.

POLITICAL PARTIES AT ODDS

The BNP and its allies want the national polls before local ones while the Jamaat and the Jatiya Nagorik Committee want the opposite.

Mia Golam Parwar, secretary general of Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, told a rally on Friday that to reduce public sufferings, local government elections should come before the national polls.

A day earlier, BNP acting chairman Tarique Rahman, said, “When the government is failing to control the prices of essentials or maintain law and order, why is it trying to further complicate the situation…? People do not understand this.”

The democracy-loving citizens, he added, believe that holding the local elections before the national one would open ways for the rehabilitation of “accomplices of the fugitive autocrat…, and those responsible for genocide, money laundering, and mafia activities.”

On February 18, LGRD Adviser Asif Mahmud told reporters that it was his personal opinion that holding the local government polls before the national election would be a good idea because the local government institutions could play an important role in organising a fair national election.

“But the final decision will come from the government after discussions with political parties,” he added.

Meanwhile, the Local Government Reform Commission, in its preliminary report released on February 22, said it would be possible to hold local polls by June this year. It also said elections to all local government institutions could be conducted under a single schedule to save time and costs.

About this, EC Anwarul had said at the time that the commission was not officially aware of the recommendations.

In the last two weeks of February, the BNP, Jamaat, the Left Democratic Alliance, and several other political parties met the Election Commission separately.

At least eight political leaders, speaking at the first meeting of the National Consensus Commission on February 15, which was presided over by Chief Adviser Prof Muhammad Yunus, gave opinions against local government polls before the national ones. Some warned that such elections could lead to “bloodshed and chaos”.

EC officials also pointed out that the interim government removed the representatives of all local government bodies, except the union parishad, and appointed administrators to do the tasks of mayors and chairmen.

As a result, elections will be needed in 11 city corporations, 61 zila parishads, 494 upazila parishad, and 331 municipalities.

The last union parishad elections were held between June 21, 2021, and February 7, 2022. Many of the 4,575 union parishad representatives are currently absconding.

No local elections were held under interim or caretaker governments in 1990, 1996, and 2001.

Similarly, no union, upazila, or municipality elections were held between 2007 and 2009 under the caretaker government. However, elections to Sylhet, Khulna, Barishal, and Rajshahi city corporations were conducted on August 4, 2008.

The third upazila elections took place in 2009, almost 19 years after the previous election in 1990, which was held during the HM Ershad regime.