Elections to municipalities and Union Parisad bodies will be held sometime after March, the chief election commissioner said Wednesday. "Before that, city corporation elections will be held at the first week of March," ATM Shamsul Huda said at a media briefing at Netrokona Circuit House. On Sept 28, Huda said they were considering holding Dhaka City Corporation elections at the end of January or early February in 2010.

Election commissioner Muhammed Sohul Hussain said on Monday no local government elections would be possible before March in 2010 even though parliament had passed laws on city corporation, municipality and union council elections. "After receiving copies of the laws it would take until February to finalise voter lists, formulate policies and complete all other related works," Sohul said. "So the local government polls will kick off with Dhaka City Corporation election in the first week of March," the commissioner said.

The EC would then hold Chittagong City Corporation, municipality and union council elections respectively, he added. Parliament passed The Local Government (City Corporation) Bill 2009 on Oct 5. The DCC ran its term in May 2007, while the CCC's will expire in May 2010. More than 300 municipalities and most of the 4,500 union councils across the country have already expired. On the inclusion in the new voters' roll in 10 CHT Upazila, Huda said initiatives would be taken to exclude them from the voters' list. He later visited the possible sites to set up server stations at Atpara, Modon and Kendua Upazila. Netrokona deputy commissioner Mohammad Ruhul Amin, among others, accompanied him.

-bdnews