Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) KM Nurul Huda on Thursday said that the commission is planning to start the union parishad (UP) elections in a large scale across the country in mid-May.
He shared the plan while addressing a function of newly elected committee of Reporters Forum for Election and Democracy, an organization of journalists working on the EC beat, and farewell of outgoing committee and reception of new members at the Nirbachan Bhaban in Dhaka.
The CEC said another phase of the polls to rest of the municipalities is likely to be held on April 7 along with some UPs.
The commission will take decision about holding the elections to how many municipalities and UPs at its next meeting on February 17, he said.
Huda said elections will not be held during the Ramadan and it is not possible to hold polls in March as it will take a month to prepare and finalize the list of voters.
There are about 4,500 UPs in the country. The last UP polls were held five years back in 2016 in six phases and party symbols were used in the polls.
The UP polls will be held in party symbol this time too, the CEC said.
He said the commission has all-out preparation to hold the fourth phase municipality polls on February 14.
Huda hoped that the next phase of the polls will be held in a peaceful and proper manner without any violence.
Election Commissioners Mahbub Talukdar, Md Rafiqul Islam, Kabita Khanam and Brig Gen Shahadat Hossain Chowdhury (retd) and EC Secretary Md Humayun Kabir Khandaker were also present at Thursday’s event, among others.
