“Buses can ply the main roads (of the Dhaka city),” said Chief Election Commissioner KM Nurul Huda told a press conference at the Nirbachan Bhaban in the city on Wednesday.
The press conference was arranged over the by-election to the mayoral post of Dhaka North City Corporation and polls to councillor posts in its 18 new wards and 18 other new wards of Dhaka South City Corporation, which will be held on Thursday.
The CEC said though no personal vehicle can ply the city roads for roaming unnecessarily, but examinees can use their private cars showing their admit cards.
Huda said the EC has already issued directives to police in this regard.
The balloting in the elections will begin at 8am and continue till 4pm without any break in the entire DNCC and DSCC extended areas.
In DNCC, five candidates are vying for the mayoral post, while 116 contenders for 18 general councillor posts and 45 aspirants for six reserved seats which are exclusively for women. Of them, one general councillor candidate has been elected unopposed in the city.
The five mayoral candidates are Awami League’s Atiqul Islam (Boat), Jatiya Party’s Shafin Ahmed (Plough), NPP’s Anisur Rahman (Mango) and PDP’s Shahin Khan (Tiger) and independent runner Abdur Rahim (Table Clock).
In DSCC, there are 125 contestants for 18 general councillor posts and 24 women for six reserved seats.
About the EC’s preparations for the elections, the CEC said the Commission has completed its all preparations to arrange the elections in a fair manner. “We want a free, fair and lawful election,” he added.
Replying to a query, he explained why the voters and candidates are not so much enthusiastic over the elections. “One of the reasons is that they’ll be elected for only one year…. Besides, all the parties have not joined the elections though we’ve nothing to do here,” he added.
About boycotting the polls by BNP, the CEC said, “We don’t have any failure. We don’t have any weakness. We’ve taken all preparations to arrange fair elections… they don’t participate in the elections, it’s their political decision.”
In reply to another question, he said had all the parties joined the election, the Commission would have been happy.
The Election Commission on January 22 last announced the schedules for by-polls to the DNCC mayoral post, and elections to its councillor posts in 18 new wards as well as the DSCC councillor posts in its 18 new wards.