The Election Commission (EC) is likely to take decision by this week regarding holding of election to the newly formed 36 general wards and 12 reserved women councilor posts of the Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) and Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC).
"Election Commission has completed all necessary preparations for holding election to these newly formed city wards following a letter from the Local Government Division to the EC Secretariat in this regard," said a top EC official.
Talking to BSS on Monday, Acting Secretary of the EC Helaluddin Ahmed said the EC has already received a letter from the Local Government Division for holding election to these extended wards of two city corporations in Dhaka.
"After getting the letter from the Local Government Division, the EC Secretariat has already completed the task of demarcating the voting areas, completed the CD of voter list as part of the preparatory works for holding the election," he added.
He informed that approval would be sought from the EC to announce the schedule to hold election to the newly formed wards for the posts of councilors and reserved women councilors in these two city corporations.
"After getting the approval, necessary formalities, including announcement of the election schedule, will be completed for holding the election," he added.
Helaluddin said that this issue would be raised before the meeting of the EC this week and then the Commission would give its opinion over the election after necessary scrutiny and subsequently the election schedule would be announced.
He informed that the issue of holding by-election for the mayoral post of Dhaka North City Corporation would also be raised before the meeting as the mayoral post lies vacant following the death of Annisul Huq.
"If the EC desires, then it can decide to hold the election to the city wards alongside the mayoral bye-election. Now, the matter fully depends on the decision of the EC," he added.
EC officials said that the election would be held in a total of 48 wards (including general and reserved) in these two city corporations. General election would be held in some 36 wards - 18 wards of DNCC and 18 wards of DSCC.
The aspirant female candidates will vie for six reserved councilors posts each at Dhaka South City Corporation and Dhaka North City Corporation.
The last elections to the DNCC and DSCC were held on April 28, 2015 where Annisul Huq became mayor from DNCC while Sayeed Khokon from DSCC. In that time, the total number of wards in DNCC was 36 while it was 57 for DSCC.
Later, the Local Government Division issued a gazette notification on July 26 last incorporating the nearby 16 unions into the jurisdiction of these two city corporation areas.
As a result, the number of general wards for DNCC rose to 54 from the previous 36 while the number of reserved posts also increased to 18 from the previous 12.
In the same way, the total number of wards for DSCC rose to 75 with the inclusion of 18 new general wards while the number of reserved women wards increased to 25 from the previous 19.