Emergency must go before city polls: CEC

Dhaka, Feb 5 (bdprem.com) – The Election Commission will hold polls to four city corporations and seven municipalities in April, the chief election commissioner (CEC) said Tuesday. At a ceremony at the Election Commission Secretariat, ATM Shamsul Huda said he had asked the government to take a decision on the state of emergency and indoor politics by March for the sake of the polls. Your Ad Here Major General Shafiqul Islam, military secretary at the army headquarters, handed over a copy of a draft voter list of the four cities and seven municipalities to him at the ceremony. Election commissioner Sakhawat Hossain and Brigadier General Sahadat Hossain were present at the ceremony. The four city corporations are Rajshahi, Khulna, Barisal and Sylhet and the municipalities are Shariatpur, Sitakunda, Cox's Bazar, Gopalganj, Sreepur, Phulbaria and Manikganj. "We've requested the government to take a decision on the state of emergency by early March and on indoor politics by late March. "The government assured us that it would take a quick decision on the matter," the CEC said. About Monday's meeting with chief adviser Fakhruddin Ahmed, Huda said: "I asked the chief adviser for an election-friendly environment because we have to hold the polls to the city corporations and municipalities in April. "It is up to the government to decide if it should relax the emergency or lift it completely to create the environment (for elections)." Huda said the emergency should at least be relaxed to allow the candidates to campaign ahead of the local government polls. He said political parties also needed to have discussions among themselves to change their constitutions in compliance with the party registration laws. Huda trashed press reports of the Election Commission officials having reservations about the Independent Election Commission Secretariat Ordinance 2008. "I saw it and there was nothing wrong with it. The draft was made the way we wanted it to be." The CEC however added that they had reservations about the ordinance vesting sole power on the chief election commissioner. But the law adviser would look into the matter, he added. Brigadier General Sahadat Hossain, voter-listing project director, said that 3.29 crore people became voter in the country and some six lakh people were working on the electoral roll. The CEC said the voters list would be updated after the parliamentary polls were held.