The Election Commission (EC) has finalized proposed amendments to the laws and rules for local-government elections and will send them to the law ministry soon.
EC Senior Secretary Akhtar Ahmed told reporters this after the commission’s 12th meeting at the Election Building in Agargaon, Dhaka, on Tuesday evening. He said there had been no discussion yet with the government on local-government elections.
The day-long meeting, from 11 a.m., was chaired by Chief Election Commissioner A M M Nasir Uddin, with the four election commissioners, Senior Secretary Akhtar Ahmed and other senior officials present.
Akhtar Ahmed said the laws of the five local-government bodies — union parishad, upazila parishad, municipality, city corporation and zilla parishad — had been discussed.
He said MPO-listed teachers would not be able to contest the elections. Loan defaulters and guarantors would also be ineligible as candidates, as would anyone with outstanding utility bills. The commission has finalized all these proposals and will send them to the law ministry quickly, the secretary said.
Akhtar Ahmed added: “We now collect data on those aged 16 and above for the national ID or voter list. When a person turns 18, they are automatically added to the voter list, and until then it stays dormant. A decision will be taken after further review on how far down this data collection can be extended — whether to SSC level, class eight or primary. We will come to a decision based on a comparative assessment.”
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report