Centering the upcoming different local body elections, a pre-poll fevour starts griping people at grassroots level across the country.
The Election Commission (EC) is preparing for arranging voting in more than five thousand local government, bodies including more than 4,500 Union Parishads (UP’s) and nearly 250 municipalities. UP elections will be held between the period of December this year and March-April next year.
The common people are eyeing now the municipal and union council elections.
Grassroots level politics has become active focusing the elections. Electoral preparation seems to have started in the rural areas of the country. Potential candidates are also campaigning in various ways.
Polls-related discussions are going on in the local markets and public places.
According to union parishad election rules, an election should be held 180 days before the expiry of the tenure of the union parishad. It does mean the polls must be completed in a period between the last week of September this year and the third week of March next year, according to Election Commission sources.
The ruling party Awami League has announced the names of party aspirants in 61 unions, 9 upazilas and 3 district council elections. It is learned that other parties including Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and Jatiya Party (JP) have also started selecting out their own candidates for contesting the polls.
Regarding upcoming polls Md Rezaul Karim, chairman, Tilakpur Union in Naogaon told Bangladesh Post, “I’ve been working for five years in my area. The upcoming election will be challenging for candidates as they have encountered the issues like curbing drugs, violence, and corruption.
He has some doubt regarding election schedule, although they are working upon it relentlessly, he added.
Abdul Motaleb Howlader, Chairman, Bauphal Upazilla of Patuakhali told Bangladesh Post, “We formed some committees to look after the internal issues in this area to keep peace. In my area there are no possibilities of chaos, we have already instructed fellow candidates about this”
As a chairman and also as a member of the party, he is preparing for peaceful, he added.
Besides, the Election Commission is also passing busy times to hold by-election to four constituencies.
The constituencies fell vacant following the death of the MPs in those constituencies. The commission has already announced schedule for by-polls to Pabna-4, Dhaka-5 and Naogaon-6 constituencies.
The schedule for by-polls to Dhaka-18 and Sirajganj-1 is likely to be declared in November and the EC will hold elections in two constituencies by December.