EC to hold union council polls in former enclaves on Oct 31

People from 111 former enclaves who have become voters in Bangladesh recently, are preparing to exercise their constitutional rights to choose public representatives for the first time in heir local body.

Election Commission Deputy Secretary Farhad Ahmed Khan said that the polls in 23 union councils - six in Kurhigram, nine in Lalmonirhat and eight in Panchagarh, are to be held on Oct 31.
   
EC Secretary Md Sirajul Islam said the final voter list of those former enclaves was ready. 
“Smart ID cards will also be distributed soon at Kurhigram’s Dashiarchharha union. We hope the people of those areas will be able to exercise their voting rights without any trouble,” he told bdnews24.com.
 
Implementation of a land swap deal with India saw the inclusion of 111 enclaves into the geo-political map of Bangladesh with effect from Aug 1 last year. Similarly, 52 enclaves were handed over to India.
 
Some 35,535 people of those 111 enclaves have been granted Bangladeshi citizenship as part of the implementation of the deal.
 
On Sep 4 this year, the list of over 10,500 voters from those enclaves was released.
  
The EC Assistant Secretary Ashfaqur Rahman said election in several other union councils were rescheduled as the ‘reformatting’ of the voter list in those areas are yet to be done.
 
According to the polls schedule announced earlier, aspirant candidates can submit nomination papers by Oct 6, scrutiny will be held on Oct 7, and the last day of withdrawal is Oct 14.