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Dhaka city polls

HC rejects date deferment plea


Published : 14 Jan 2020 09:24 PM | Updated : 27 Aug 2020 08:18 PM

The writ petition seeking directives to defer the date of elections in two Dhaka city corporations has been rejected by the High Court (HC) on Tuesday. The HC bench of Justice JBM Hassan and Justice Md Khairul Alam passed the order considering the progress in the election process and the Secondary School Certificate (SSC) examinations scheduled to begin from February 2.

The HC bench passed the order after holding hearing from counsels of the writ petitioner, the government and the Election Commission.
Following the HC order, the elections of the Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) and the Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) will be held as per its previous schedule on January 30.

Earlier on January 6, Advocate Ashoke Kumar Ghosh, a Supreme Court lawyer, filed the writ seeking its directive to defer the polls date as Saraswati Puja, one of the biggest religious festivals of the Sonatan Hindu community, is also scheduled to be celebrated across the country on the same day.

Saraswati Puja is celebrated in all universities, colleges and other educational institutions across the country while polling stations will be set up in different educational institutes in the city for the polls which will hamper the celebrations, the writ said. On December 22 last, Chief Election Commissioner KM Nurul Huda announced the election schedule for the polls to DNCC and DSCC fixing January 30 as the voting date.

The court in its order said that the countrywide SSC examination will start on February 2, the government holiday for Saraswati Puja has been fixed earlier on Jan 29 and nobody raised any objection against the government holiday on Jan 29. So therefore, under the circumstances, there is no scope for shifting the date of holding the two city corporation elections of Dhaka.

Election Commission Secretary Md Alamgir earlier on Monday said that the EC will act in accordance with the court directives on Dhaka north and south city corporation elections scheduled for January 30, said.