The New Nation - Internet Edition

Bdnews24.com, Dhaka

The Election Commission is looking to hold elections to those Upazila Parishad not affected by floods, an EC official said yesterday.

EC secretary Muhammad Humayun Kabir told journalists at the regular briefing at the EC Secretariat they were making a list of the flood-affected Upazila.

He also told reporters the EC had held an interministry meeting earlier in the day on inclusion of expatriate Bangladeshis as voters.

Asked whether they saw the floods as the main obstacles to holding Upazila elections, Kabir said, "Flood has been affecting many district and Upazila. We are collecting situation report."

He said the elections to Upazila and Dhaka City Corporation are slated for October 23-30 and that the EC would announce the election schedules by the middle of this month.

However, he said, they were considering whether there was any real problem in holding the elections.

The EC Secretariat in a letter to the water resources ministry secretary asked for a list of flood-prone districts and Upazila and which districts were flooded in Sept-Oct last year, Kabir added.

The Election Commission in its meeting on Monday discussed the matter, he added.

A high EC official requesting anonymity told bdnews24.com that the Election Commission was considering holding the first round of elections on Oct 23 and 27 before the national elections.

It is being considered for the sake of managing massive activities needed and to control law and order situation, the official added.

Besides, the EC plans to hold the DCC elections on Oct 30, he said.

Kabir, the EC secretary said the schedules would be announced 40 to 45 days ahead of the elections.

Chief election commissioner ATM Shamsul Huda on July 21 for the first time told bdenws24.com and the BBC that they were planning to hold Upazila elections on Oct 23. At the time, the EC planned to elections to about 300 Upazila.

The EC and the government want most political parties including the Awami League and BNP to run the polls, but both the major political parties are opposing the Upazila elections before the general elections.

The EC is going to sit with 16 political parties on rules of registration under new electoral laws on Sept 6-9. The EC officials said the parties were expected to give their opinion about national and Upazila elections in the meetings.

The application for shifting address of probable candidates for the Upazila elections was placed in the meeting and it is undergoing scrutiny.

The EC officials sat with the foreign, home, expatriates welfare, and law, justice and parliamentary affairs ministries over inclusion of expatriate Bangladeshis in the voter list.

The EC secretary said, "The matter of including the expatriates in the voter list is under process. The proposal for amending the ordinances and the summary of inter-ministerial meeting would be sent to the law ministry next week."

He however, did not comment on whether the expatriate Bangladeshis would be able to become voter before elections this year.

Once the Voter List Ordinance 2007 and the Voter List Rules 2008 are amended, there would be no legal barrier to Bangladeshis living abroad temporarily and holding dual citizenship to become voter.

The EC secretary said the final voter list of DCC was published yesterday and the final printing of the voter list for Dhaka city would be complete in a week.

Until on Thursday 61 political parties have collected application forms for registration with the Election Commission, he said.