234 municipalities to go to polls on Dec 30 [ Tritiyo Matra News ]

234 municipalities to go to polls on Dec 30

Local November 25, 2015

Out of the country’s 323 municipalities 234 would go to polls on December 30, chief election commissioner Kazi Rakibuddin Ahmad announced Tuesday.
He announced the schedule for the civic polls at a news briefing at the Election Commission’s media centre.
The aspirants have to drop their nomination papers on December 3, he said.
The scrutiny of the nomination papers would take place on December 5and 6, he said.
The last date for withdrawal nominations has been set for December 13.
It would be for the first time that the political parties would nominate candidates in civic elections under the just amended local government (Municipality) Act.
The amendment would enable party nominees to use party symbols.
Both party nominees and independent aspirants are expected to be in the run for 234 mayoral posts.
The election of councilors as well as women councilors from the reserve seats will be held on non-partisan line as in the past.
CEC said that each independent mayoral aspirant would be required to drop his or her nomination paper with a list of 100 supporters, who must be eligible voters, with their signatures.
But the party nominees and former mayors would not be required to submit similar list of supporters with their nomination papers, he said.
He asked the political parties interested to participate in the elections to submit letters signed by designated persons to the returning officers within five-days.
With nomination papers, mayoral aspirants nominated by political parties would be required to submit letters signed by the party president or general secretary or other designated persons , said the CEC.
He said that all the nomination papers would be scrapped in the event of a political party nominating more than one nominee for election of a mayor.
The CEC said that the EC was working to create a level playing field in the coming civic elections.
‘We would expect all the registered parties to participate in the polls,’ he said.
The EC would soon, he said, hold a meeting with the law enforcement agencies for the creation of a level playing field in the municipal polls.
He said that the prime minister, the speaker, the ministers, the deputy speaker, the leader and the deputy leader of the House, the leader and the deputy leader of the opposition, the incumbent mayors and the other functionaries holding equivalent ranks were debarred from campaigning.
The CEC said that the EC would take legal action against the aspirants unless they removed their campaign posters, banners and other campaign materials within 48 hours.
Out of 71,62,396 registered voters eligible cast their votes in the civic polls, 35,86,356 were males and 35,76,040 females.
Out of 2,953 seats of councilors 738 are reserved for women.
The EC would deploy 3,582 presiding officers, 19,187 assistant presiding officers and 38,374 polling officers for conducting the elections at 3,582 vote centers for electing 234 mayors, 2,952 councilors and 738 women councilors, said the CEC.
At the news briefing, election commissioners Mohammad Abu Hafiz and Md Shah Nawaz and EC secretary Sirajul Islam accompanied the CEC.