Comprehensive plan for local elections within one year

Bangladesh’s Election Commission (EC) is preparing a roadmap to complete elections for all tiers of local government -- including union parishads, upazila parishads, municipalities, and city corporations -- within the next year.

Following the 13th national parliamentary election and referendum, the EC has made local government polls its top priority. Election Commissioner Md Anwarul Islam Sarkar said the plan is being prepared considering legal reforms, administrative readiness, budget allocation, and seasonal challenges such as the monsoon.

He said the elections will be held in phases, although the commission has not yet decided whether city corporations, upazilas, or other local bodies will vote first.

To ensure more credible and effective polls, the EC is planning major legal and policy reforms. These include revising election rules, reviewing candidate deposit amounts, limiting campaign posters, and scrapping the Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) system.

Senior Election Commissioner Abdur Rahmanel Masud, who heads the law reform committee, said officials are working to create a unified legal framework for all local government institutions to improve transparency and consistency.

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Anwarul Islam said local elections must meet the same standards as national polls and stressed that the commission aims to ensure free, fair, and impartial voting to strengthen public trust.

The EC is also reviewing lessons from the recent national election and referendum, including ballot management, vote counting, result declaration, and postal voting for expatriates.

EC Secretary Akhtar Ahmed said nearly 4,500 local government institutions will go to the polls under the new plan, and the commission believes the elections can be completed within a year through a phased, coordinated approach.