The Election Commission (EC) on Wednesday is likely to announce the schedule for the second phase of about 1,000 Union Parishad (UP) elections across the country, EC sources said.
EC Joint Secretary and Director (Public Relations) SM Asaduzzaman said, “The issue of the second phase of UP voting is on the agenda at the commission meeting to be held on Wednesday. However, it will be decided at the commission meeting whether the schedule will be announced on that day or not.”
EC sources said the 86th meeting of the commission will be held on Wednesday at 11:30 am.
Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) KM Nurul Huda will preside over the meeting. Apart from the schedule for the second phase of UP elections, Sirajganj-6 vacant seat by-election, women's seat-45 by-election, general election in the seventh phase municipality and by-election to various local government bodies may be announced.
According to sources, the EC wants to complete all the elections suitable for voting this year. So in the next step, a little more votes may be taken in UP. In the second phase, the election schedule may be announced in about 1,000 UPs.
Earlier, EC Secretary Md Humayun Kabir told reporters that a decision on the schedule for the next phase of UP would be taken at a commission meeting later this month.
On March 3, the EC announced the schedule of 371 UPs for the first phase. According to the announced schedule, the vote was to be held on April 11, but the vote was postponed due to the Covid-19 situation.
Later, the date of the election was rescheduled and on June 21, the commission held polls in 204 UPs.
At the same time, the votes of 167 UPs were postponed. The next adjournment was held on September 20 at 161 UP.
The election was postponed to September 20 in Saint Martin due to communication problems and the deaths of five other UP candidates.
At present there are 4,483 UPs in the country. Among them, tenure of 752 UPs expired on 21 March, 684 UPs on 30 March, 685 UPs on 22 April, 743 UPs on 6 May, 733 UPs on 27 May and 724 UPs on 3 June.