Local government elections will be held on time by strictly following the constitutional procedures and rules, the new Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives Minister Dr. Abdul Moyeen Khan said on Sunday.

“Elections would be held at all five tiers of local government, with the government expecting genuine representatives of the people to be elected,” he said.

The minister made the remarks while exchanging views with officials of the ministry and its subordinate agencies at the Secretariat on his first working day after assuming office.

Asked when local government elections would begin and whether they would be completed within a year, Moyeen Khan said there was a constitutional process for holding the elections and it would not be appropriate for him to announce a specific date without following that process.

“Following the constitutional process and observing all the rules, the BNP government will, announce the local government elections at the appropriate time,” he said.

The minister said holding local government elections within a particular timeframe was not his personal target, but a government objective aimed at reflecting the will of the people.

He stressed that local government elections were not limited to city corporations.

“There are elections at different tiers of local government. Elections will be held at all five tiers, and our expectation is that genuine representatives of the people will be elected,” he said.

Noting that the elections of 2008, 2014, 2018 and 2024 had failed to reflect the will of the people, the minister said he considered the February 12, 2026 election an opportunity through which genuine representatives of the people had come before the country.

The minister also describes the Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives Ministry as different from many other ministries because of its direct and day-to-day engagement with citizens.

“The main objective of the government is to serve the people, and this ministry is among those that work directly with the people every day, 365 days a year,” he said.

Moyeen Khan said local government was an important component of the democratic system and that effective functioning of the ministry would contribute to the overall functioning of the government and the country.

He also said the ministry worked directly with people at the grassroots and pledged to ensure that government policies and services reached them effectively.

He believed the government would succeed when services were properly delivered to people at the grassroots.

The minister said the government would serve all citizens, but special attention would be given to poor, disadvantaged and underprivileged people.

“Those who are affluent and wealthy are less dependent on government support because they can manage many of their own needs. But poor people need greater assistance from the government,” he said.

According to estimates, around 40 percent of Bangladesh's population still lives in poverty in one form or another, he said adding the rights of poor people had been deprived during the previous government and highlighted the Family Card and Farmer Card programmes introduced by BNP Chairman Tarique Rahman.

He said his focus would remain on addressing the needs of disadvantaged people and that he wanted to work alongside citizens, standing with them, to serve the country under the responsibility entrusted to him by the prime minister.