Desk Report,
There will be no party symbol in local government elections: Asif Mahmud
There will be no party symbols in the local government elections. Today, Thursday, at around 1:45 pm, the Advisory Council of the interim government approved four amendments to the relevant laws raised by the Local Government Department.
There will be no party symbol in local government elections: Asif Mahmud
Asif Mahmud Sajeeb Bhuiyan, Advisor to the Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives of the interim government, made these statements in a post on his verified Facebook page around 1:45 pm.
Earlier, the Local Government Ministry prepared drafts of four separate ordinances in this regard and sent them to the Cabinet Division on July 1. After that, the Advisory Council is supposed to publish them in the form of a gazette with the consent of the Legislative and Parliamentary Affairs Department. Today, the Advisory Council approved the draft. As a result of this new decision, political parties will not be able to formally nominate any candidates in the local government elections. All the candidates will be non-partisan, which is now known as independent.
In 2015, during the Awami League government, it was decided to hold local government elections with party symbols. Since then, various parties and election experts have been demanding the end of the use of party symbols in local government elections for a long time. The Electoral Reform Commission and the Local Government Reform Commission set up by the interim government also recommended the elimination of party symbols. Concerned people believe that if this provision is eliminated, many qualified people who are not directly associated with political parties will also be interested in elections.
There has been a discussion in politics about local government elections during the interim government’s rule before the next national elections. Although BNP has opposed local government elections before the national elections, some parties including Jamaat-e-Islami, Jatiya Nagorik Party (NCP), and Islami Andolan Bangladesh are demanding local elections before them. In the meantime, the government is repealing the party symbol clause in the four laws of the local government structure.
