City corporation elections to be held in phases as tenures expire: Mirza Fakhrul

Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, Adviser to the Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives, has said elections will be arranged as soon as possible to restore full functionality to all local government institutions.

“City corporation elections will be held first in areas where the current tenure ends earlier,” he said in an interview with a media outlet on Tuesday.

On whether local polls would be conducted under party symbols, he said a decision on holding city corporation and other local government elections on party lines would be taken at Parliament’s first sitting on 12 March. He also expressed the view that political administrators are likely to perform better than bureaucrats.

He further noted that city corporations whose terms expire first would go to the polls first. Accordingly, elections to Dhaka North City Corporation, Dhaka South City Corporation and Chattogram City Corporation are expected to be held in the initial phase, followed by polls in the remaining city corporations in stages.