HOLDING LOCAL POLLS ON PARTY LINES : Changes in laws on cards

The cabinet on Monday approved five  draft bills seeking amendments  to as many local government laws to allow political parties to field candidates in local polls.
The amendments would also empower the government to appoint administrators to run municipalities, upazila parishads  and union parishads on expiry of tenures of elected office holders.
The bills were approved citing examples of India and the UK where political parties can nominate candidates in the local polls.
Later, cabinet secretary Muhammad Musharraf Hossain Bhuiyan told a press briefing that the amendments would empower registered political parties to nominate candidates in local polls. And in this regard, he said, local polls would be like parliamentary elections.
He said that the party candidates would be able to contest the polls using party symbols.The provision allowing independent candidates to contest would remain unchanged, he said.The draft bills were presented in the cabinet meeting by the local government division.
The bills seek amendments to the Local Government (Union Parishad) Act, Upazila Parishad Act, Zila Parishad Act  Local Government (Municipalities) Act and Local Government (City Corporations) Act.The meeting was chaired by prime minister Sheikh Hasina.The local polls were traditionally held in the country on non-partisan lines.
The cabinet secretary said that an ordinance would be promulgated soon to change the law to facilitate holding of municipal polls as Parliament was not in session.
The possibility of local elections getting less competitive and more violent under the new dispensation was ruled out by   LGRD minister Khandker Mosharraf Hossain.
The amendments would make local polls more democratic and competitive, he said.He said replying to a question that the administrators would run the local bodies until polls were held.
In its previous tenure the Awami League-led government appointed administrators to run 61 zila parishads in violation of the Constitution.
Local government expert and former Chittagong University professor Tofail Ahmed described the practice as gross violation of the Constitution.
He said polls should be held before the expiry of tenures.
Tofail said that interference from the government rendered local government units useless.

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