No bar to holding Dhaka north city by-election

The High Court (HC) on Wednesday cleared the way for holding elections to Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) and Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC).

The bench of justice Gobinda Chandra Tagore and justice Mohammad Ullah withdrew its earlier order that kept the mayoral by-election to DNCC withheld for six months.

The court also rejected three separate petitions filed on the election affairs, said Kazi Mynul Hasan, a counsel of the local government and rural development (LGRD).

The High Court withdrew the stay order and rejected three petitions as no lawyer from the petitioner was present during the hearing, said the counsel.

Now the election commission will think about the election schedule, he added.

On 14 January last year, a two-member HC bench stayed for six months the mayoral by-election to the DNCC following two separate writ petitions filed with HC seeking a stay on the election.

As per the schedule declared by the election commission, the by-polls to the DNCC mayoral post were supposed to be held on 26 February 2018.

The DNCC mayoral post fell vacant with the death of Annisul Huq on 30 November 2017.

Besides, on 18 January last year, the High Court (HC) stayed for four weeks the elections to Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) ward councilor posts and reserved seats in 18 new wards.