Polls schedule for reserved women seats on Feb 17

Staff Correspondent: Election Commission (EC) Secretary Helaluddin Ahmed said the Commission will announce election schedules on February 17 for 50 reserved seats of the 11^th parliament exclusively for women.

The EC secretary made the disclosure while briefing reporters after a meeting of the Election Commission at Nirbachan Bhaban in the capital’s Agargaon on Monday.

“The polls schedules for the reserved seats will be announced on February 17,” Helaluddin said.

He said the meeting also decided to start the 5^th countrywide upazila election in the first week of March and use electronic voting machines (EVMs) in all sadar upazila parishads.

The schedule for the 5^th countrywide upazila will be announced in the first week of February, said the EC Secretary adding that the upazila elections will be held in phases.

According to the proportional representation in Parliament, Awami League will get women MPs from 43 reserved seats, Jatiya Party from 4 seats, BNP from one, and other parties and the coalition of independent MPs will get the remaining two seats.

The Election Commission has a legal obligation to arrange the polls to the 50 reserved seats within 90 days after the gazette of general election result is published.

The directly-elected members of parliament are the voters of the election.

If the number of nominated candidates by a political party is equal to its reserved seats, the contenders will be declared elected unopposed immediately after the last date for withdrawal of candidacy.

However, eight MPs-elect of Jatiya Oikyafront –- six from BNP and two from Gono Forum -- have not taken oath of office as MPs.


risingbd/Dhaka/Jan 14, 2019/Hasibul/AI