Election Commissioner Abdur Rahmanel Masud on Monday said the Election Commission is taking preparations to start the arrangement of phased elections to local government bodies in October next.

“We think the elections will be held at the right time. We have said this before and we are saying it again—we are moving forward with October in mind," he said while addressing a fruit festival organised by the Reporters Forum for Election and Democracy (RFED) at the Nirbachan Bhaban in the city.

City corporation elections after Ramadan: EC Masud

The Election Commission, however, said there is a matter of it won’t be logical for the EC to come up with a clearer announcement over the election as holding local government elections requires coordination with the government on several issues due to ground reality.

"As many aspects of the election require coordination with the government, it would not be reasonable for the Election Commission to make a definitive announcement without formal and informal discussions with the government," he said.

He said if elections are held in October, the schedule will have to be announced around 45 days before the polls date. “We are making our preparations accordingly," he added.

The commissioner said the EC would soon write to the government requesting the speedy resolution of demarcation and boundary-related complications, which remain one of the key prerequisites for holding local government elections.

Citing that most of local government bodies are currently vacant, he viewed that elections to union parishad and municipalities shall be held first as chiefs and members of municipalities and union parishads serve as ex-officio members of upazila parishads.

As a result, upazila parishad elections cannot effectively be completed before elections to municipalities and union parishads.

Since of the members of Union Parishads, municipalities and upazila parishads are the voters in the Zila Parishad election, the polls can’t be held before elections to three types of local bodies in a particular district.

Election Commissioner Abul Fazal Md Sanaullah said the EC has already taken all primary preparations for local government polls.

He said the commission has already uploaded the draft electoral code of conduct to its website, received observations from stakeholders and is reviewing relevant laws to make any necessary adjustments.

On boundary delimitation, Sanaullah said the EC has decided to coordinate closely with the Local Government Division to ensure the process is completed as quickly as possible.

"We have started preparations from our side so that, like the national election, we can conduct very fair local government elections in a nice manner,” said the election commissioner.

Two other election commissioners Tahmida Ahmad and Anwarul Islam Sarker, EC Senior Secretary Akhtar Ahmed and Principal Information Officer Syed Abdal Ahmed were present at the event presided over by RFED President Kazi Emad Uddin (Jabel).