Dhaka, Jan 23 – The High Court will hear on Sunday a writ petition filed seeking a stay on the upcoming Dhaka City corporations polls slated to be held on February 1. The HC bench comprising Justice JBM Hassan and Justice Md Khairul Alam yesterday fixed the day for holding a hearing on the petition.
On January 22, Supreme Court lawyer Advocate Eunus Ali Akond filed the writ petition with the HC for staying the Dhaka city polls for not updating the voter lists of the city corporations.
According to the petition, the laws dictate that in order to contest the polls, independent mayor candidates must be backed by at least 300 voters. However, the same provision does not exist for the party candidates which is in violation of articles 7, 19, 26, 27, 28 and 31 of the Constitution.
Moreover, there is no provision to postpone the election without announcing a new polls schedule, it said.
The petition said that the voter list must be updated from Jan 2 to Jan 31 but the draft list was published on Jan 20 depriving new voters of being able to vote.
It added that the term of a mayor should be five years from the first meeting but this year the schedule was announced six months early.
The law and local government secretaries, chief election commissioner and returning officers of the two Dhaka city corporations have been made respondents in the petition. – Staff Reporter
