City polls in phases based on tenure expiry: Mirza Fakhrul

Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives Minister Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir has said that elections will be held as quickly as possible to reactivate all local government institutions.

“City corporation elections will be held first where the current terms expire earlier,” he said in an interview with a media outlet on Tuesday.

Regarding the possibility of holding local elections under party symbols, Mirza Fakhrul said a decision on whether city corporation and other local government polls would be conducted on party lines would be taken at the first sitting of Parliament on 12 March.

He also said that political administrators would perform better than bureaucrats.

The minister added that city corporations whose tenure expire first would go to the polls first. In that case, elections to the two Dhaka city corporations and Chattogram City Corporation would be held at the initial stage, followed by polls in the remaining city corporations in phases.