United News of Bangladesh

Local Government and Rural Development Minister Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir on Tuesday said the Election Commission has already started preparations to hold the local government elections in a free and neutral manner. “In order to arrange the next local government polls in a free, fair and impartial manner, the Election Commission has already started necessary preparations,” Fakhrul, also the Minister in charge of the Election Commission (EC) Secretariat in Parliament, told Parliament, replying to a starred question from treasury bench member Sheikh Md Rejaul Islam (Naogaon-6). Deputy Speaker Barrister Kayser Kamal tabled the question-answer session at the outset of the day’s business of the House. Fakhrul said the EC has undertaken the necessary preparations to ensure that a credible and participatory local government election is held within the stipulated timeframe. Replying to a question from NCP lawmaker Abul Hasnat, popularly known as Hasnat Abdullah (Cumilla-4), the minister said the EC  introduced, for the first time, an IT-supported postal ballot registration system to facilitate voting by Bangladeshis living abroad. He said the initiative will continue in the next national election and that the Election Commission is working to bring the maximum number of expatriate Bangladeshis under the postal balloting system to ensure their voting rights. In response to a question from opposition Jamaat-e-Islami lawmaker Abdul Karim (Gaibandha-2) Fakhrul Islam said right now the government has no plan to increase the salaries and allowances of union parishad chairmen and members.

The local government elections will begin at the end of the current year, said Prime Minister’s Adviser on Information and Broadcasting Dr Zahed Ur Rahman on Tuesday. “The election will start at the end of the year. Some preparations are needed which have already been communicated by the concerned ministry,” he said while responding to questions at a press briefing at the conference room of the Press Information Department (PID) at the Secretariat. Replying to a question the adviser said the whole election process is expected to take between 10 months to a year after it begins. Responding to another question whether the government plans to abolish Upazila Parishad following the allocation of office space for MPs at Upazila Parishad office, the adviser said no such decision has been taken yet. Referring to legal provisions, the adviser said under Section 25 of the Upazila Parishad Act, MPs are legally advisers to Upazila Parishad.  “If he is there legally, some may argue whether that position should exist at all — whether an MP should serve as an adviser is a separate debate. But providing an office does not make the situation worse in any way. If we follow that line of reasoning, since an MP is an adviser to the Upazila Parishad, it is only logical that they would have an office there. As I said, there is public debate on whether MPs should hold such advisory roles,” he said. The government has no intention of weakening or diminishing the role of Upazila Parishad through such measures, he noted.

National Citizen Party (NCP) has formed a committee to conduct the upcoming local government elections, appointing its Chief Organiser (North) Md Sarjis Alam as Chairman and Abdul Hannan Masud as member secretary. The party disclosed the information in a message posted on its official Facebook page around 10:15pm on Monday. Other members of the committee are Ariful Islam Adib, Alauddin Mohammad, Tahsin Riaz and Advocate Monjila Jhuma.