BANGLADESH

The local government ministry has initiated a move to amend the Local Government (City Corporation) Bill to extend the deadline for staging elections to the split Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) and also to increase the tenure of the DCC administrators.

The effort comes after the Election Commission (EC) expressed its inability to stage the DCC elections, given the paucity of time.

The ministry has forwarded the amendment proposal for discussion in the cabinet. The draft recommends holding DCC elections within 180 days instead of the stipulated 90 days, local government secretary Abu Alam Shahid Khan told on Saturday.

Khan said the amendment is being brought to extend the deadline for elections, as the EC "could not, or did not" stage the polls within 90 days.

"We have sent the bill to the Cabinet Division for approval of the amendment," he said. "In this case, the provision to stage the polls within 90 days will be changed to 180 days, and the administrators' tenure will be the same (180 days)."

The bill would be tabled in parliament after approval of the cabinet, he added.

The divided DCC polls will have to be staged by May if the bill is amended. Khan said he hopes the bill would be presented in one of the next two cabinet meetings.

ELECTION PREPARATION

Election commissioner M Sakhawat Hossain welcomed the initiative to amend the law that would give EC time to hold the polls within 180 day. He told that though the outgoing EC could not hold the polls, all necessary preparations for a successful election would be done.

He said the government has been informed of the matter.

"EC officials have been asked to be ready for at least 10 pre-election preparatory activities, including (preparing names of) proposed poll centres, the voter list, among others," he said.

Sakhawat Hossain hoped that there would not be any problem in staging the elections within May.

He also expressed disappointment for not being able to stage the polls under the incumbent EC and believes the elections will be a challenge for the new EC.

DCC SPLIT IN TWO

The Local Government (City Corporation) Amendment Bill-2011 was passed in parliament on Nov 30, splitting DCC into North and South zones.

Then the mayor Sadeque Hossain Khoka and the councillors had to leave office after president Zillur Rahman approved the bill and a gazette was published.

Subsequently, the government, on Dec 4 appointed Khalilur Rahman as DCC South administrator and Khorshed Alam Chowdhury as his counterpart in DCC North.

The administrators are supposed to hand over power to the elected mayors. As per law, mayoral elections are to be held in the two city corporations within 90 days of appointment of the administrators.

According to the bill to split DCC, administrators of the new city corporations will not be able to hold office for more than 180 days, while those of corporations with expired dates would have to hand over power within 90 days of appointment.

The bill also says an administrator cannot be appointed twice to the post.

PRESENT EC 'UNABLE' TO HOLD POLLS

Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Shamsul Huda had earlier expressed the incumbent EC's inability to hold the elections in the scheduled 90-day period. The shortage of time was among the three reasons he had cited for this.

The commission issued a letter to the local government ministry in this regard last December.

Criticising the "contradictory" position of the EC and the government, local government minister Syed Ashraful Islam said elections to the divided DCC would take place under a new commission.

The previous Dhaka City Corporation had ended its tenure in May 2007. There had been no elections since.