Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Dr ATM Shamsul Huda yesterday expressed his frustration over the government’s dilly-dallying approach on holding the long overdue Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) poll.
“Government’s attitude indicates that they have no headache to hold the election,” he said during a dialogue with Islami Andolan Bangladesh (IAB) on electoral reform at the commission’s secretariat in the city.
The last DCC election was held in early 2002 and its tenure expired on May 14, 2007. Election Commission (EC) already approached the government three times to hold the election but there was no satisfactory response, he said.
… On introduction of electronic voting machine (EVM), CEC said, “We hoped to use the machine experimentally in the Dhaka City Corporation polls before the parliamentary election. But we failed to execute our plan.”
On electoral reform, he said none can shift from being a party candidate to an independent or rival candidate once the papers are submitted to the EC. A candidate must state his party affiliation from the beginning, he said.
On BNP’s response following EC’s repeated invitation to join the ongoing dialogue, he said, “I hope they will join.”
Meanwhile IAB leaders suggested introducing EVM in phases in different local government elections before the parliamentary election.
Full Article: CEC frustrated over DCC election delay.