Mymensingh City Corporation to hold first election on May 5

The Election Commission has announced that the new Mymensingh City Corporation will hold its first election on May 5.

According to the schedule announced by election officials, candidates will have until Apr 8 to submit their forms, the nominees will be scrutinised on Apr 10 and candidates will have until Apr 17 to withdraw.

EC Secretary Helal Uddin Ahmed made the announcement after the 46th meeting of the KM Nurul Huda-led commission on Monday.

Electronic voting machines (EVMs) will be used at all 130 polling centres in the city corporation.

The HSC examinations are to be held in April. Ramadan begins on May 7. The EC has scheduled the polls to fall between these events.

Ekramul Haque, the mayor of the now defunct Mymensingh municipality, has been serving as the administrator of the newly formed city corporation.

According to the Local Government (City Corporation) Act, an administrator’s term can last for a maximum of 180 days. The city has to elect a new public representative before the administrator’s term ends.

The boundaries of the Mymensingh City Corporation, composed of 33 general wards and 11 reserve wards, was set out in a gazette on Jan 28 of this year.

The government updated Mymensingh to Bangladesh’s 12th city corporation on Oct 15 of last year.

The National Implementation Committee for Administrative Reorganization-Reform (NICAR) approved the formation of the city corporation on Apr 2 of last year.

NICAR had previously formed the Mymensingh Division, the eighth in the country, on Sept 14, 2015. The division includes Mymensingh, Jamalpur, Sherpur and Netrokona.

The Mymensingh City Corporation was announced within three years. The other city corporations are Dhaka North, Dhaka South, Chattogram, Rajshahi, Khulna, Sylhet, Barishal, Cumilla, Narayanganj, Rangpur and Gazipur.

The total land area of the new city corporation is 91.135 square kilometres. The total population of the area is 471,858.