The Election Commission has postponed the first phase of Union Parishad (UP) elections following an increase in Covid-19 cases across the country.
The elections to 11 municipalities and the by-polls for Lakshmipur-2 constituency, scheduled for April 11, have also been postponed.
The decision to postpone the polls came from a meeting of the Election Commission on Thursday (April 1).
The meeting decided not to hold any other elections in the country until the Covid-19 pandemic situation improves, said EC Secretary Md Humayun Kabir Khandaker.
Chief Election Commissioner, KM Nurul Huda, Election Commissioners Md Rafiqul Islam, Begum Kabita Khanam, Brigadier General (retd) Shahadat Hossain Chowdhury, EC Secretary Md Humayun Kabir Khandaker, and Additional Secretary Ashok Kumar Debnath, among other senior officials, were present at the meeting.
Humayun Kabir Khandaker said that the commission decided to postpone the elections following the government’s 18 directives to control the spread of coronavirus in the country. New date for the postponed elections will be announced later depending on the coronavirus cases across the country, he added.
The elections to 323 Union Parishads from 63 upazilas of 20 districts of the country were scheduled to be held in the first phase of balloting to the lowest tier of the local government on April 11.
March 18 was the last date for submission of nomination papers for the first phase of UP polls.
A total of 73 ruling Awami League chairman candidates in the first phase were elected uncontested. The Election Commission released the data after the deadline for withdrawing nomination papers for the UP elections.
Of the about 4,500 Union Parishads across the country, more than 4,300 are eligible for polls this year. The voting to the UPs will take place in several phases.
The last UP elections were held in six phases in 2016. According to the Local Government (Union Parishad) Act, the election should be held within the period of 180 days of the expiration of the term of the Union Parishad.
This year voting in UPs was set to begin from March, but it was fixed for April because of a delay in updating voter lists.
