High Court halts Dhaka City bypolls for three months

The High Court has stayed the Feb 26 bypolls in the Dhaka North City Corporation and elections in new wards for three months.

Staff Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 17 Jan 2018, 06:07 AM
Updated : 17 Jan 2018, 11:03 PM

Justice Naima Haider and Justice Zafar Ahmed passed the order on Wednesday after two Union Parishad chairmen filed petitions.

They issued a rule asking why the Election Commission’s schedule for the mayoral bypolls and councillor elections in the new 18 wards should not be declared beyond the legal purview.

The commission declared the election schedule on Jan 9 following the death of former Dhaka North mayor Annisul Huq on Nov 30, 2017.

Ataur Rahman and Jahangir Alam, the chairmen of Bhatara and Beraid union councils respectively, challenged the schedule in court on Tuesday. Their union councils are now city corporation wards.

Ataur and Jahangir are general secretaries of Bhatara and Beraid unit of the BNP and the Awami League respectively. 

Lawyer Ahsan Habib Bhuiyan, who represented Ataur, told bdnews24.com the EC set Jan 18 as the deadline for filing nominations, but the electoral roll was yet to be published. 

“The nomination paper requires the signatures of 300 voters. How is that possible without a voter list?”

The formation of the city corporation is deemed valid if 75 percent of representatives, including the mayor, are elected and their names are published, according to the Local Government (City Corporation) Act 2009.

“The wards, if the new 18 are added, do not make up 75 percent of the Dhaka North City Corporation because elections were not held in the new wards,” Bhuiyan said.

His client’s petition also questions why the councillors from the new wards, when elected, will not be able to remain in office for a five-year term.

Towhidul Islam, the lawyer for the EC, said the court’s decision has been conveyed to the commission and it would take a call on the next course of action on the DNCC polls after analysing the court order.

After the order, the BNP alleged the government had a hand in the stay order as the ruling party ‘sensed its defeat in the elections’. 

BNP Standing Committee Member Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain said, “What a nice game! The government tasked its own people with filing the writ petitions when it felt that it will face a debacle in the mayoral by-polls to Dhaka North.”

But Awami League General Secretary Obaidul Quader has dismissed the allegation. “The government is not involved in this. We don’t believe in dirty politics,” he said.

LGRD Minister Khandker Mosharraf Hossain told reporters that there would be no problem in running the city corporation despite the freeze on the election.

“The mayoral panel is running the city corporation very well with the help of the councillors,” he pointed out.