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Election Commission begins preparations to hold polls in 4,500 Union Parishads
The Election Commission has begun preparations to hold the ninth Union Parishad (UP) polls.
Published : 29 Jan 2016, 08:12 AM
Updated : 29 Jan 2016, 10:29 AM
The commission has readied two sets of guidelines for the elections in 4,500 UPs, to be held along party lines for the first time.
The documents have been sent to the law ministry for approval.
It has also sent a revised budget to the finance ministry to meet an estimated polls expenditure of Tk 6 billion.
EC Secretariat officials said the local government division on Thursday had sent a list of 774 UPs that will go to polls in the first phase.
Election Commissioner Md Zabed Ali said, “We will announce the polls schedule by the middle of February, if we get the revised polls guidelines and the code of conduct by the 12th of the month.”
The EC’s field officials have been told to send lists of likely polling centres within five days of the dates being announced.
The voting centres used in the last UP and 10th national elections should be given preference, they have been told.
The Commission’s election management department Deputy Secretary Shamsul Alam said the dates would be finalised once the polls guidelines were approved and the full list of UPs examined by the EC.
He said the EC was likely to first announce the polls date of 750 coastal region UPs; those of the rest would follow.
The terms of 774 UPs end on May 31. The first phase of polls in these UPs could be held between Mar 20 and Mar 28, if the schedule is announced by mid-February.
Of the total estimated poll expenditure of Tk 6 billion, Tk 2.5 billion would be spent in election management and Tk 3.5 billion to maintain law and order, according to the EC.
EC Senior Assistant Secretary Enamul Haque maintained the current 2015-16 budgetary allocation for the UP polls was inadequate.
He said they had already informed the finance ministry and expected the matter to be resolved soon.
Union Parishads elections have been held eight times so far -- in 1973, 1977, 1983, 1988, 1992, 1997, 2003 and 2011.
The 2011 elections were held in two phases.
The last election five years back had cost Tk 2.5 billion, said commission Deputy Secretary Shahjahan Khan.
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