The Election Commission on Sunday filed a petition with the Appellate Division to vacate the stay order that the High Court had passed on April 16 on the mayoral elections of the newly created Dhaka South City and Dhaka North City Corporations, which are scheduled for May 24.
The EC also filed another petition seeking permission to appeal against the High Court’s order that also asked the administrators of the Dhaka North and South City Corporations to explain why they would not be directed to hold the elections only after updating the list of voters and completing other required legal formalities.
After a brief hearing the chamber judge of the Appellate Division, Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain, posted the hearing by its full court on October 11.
Senior lawyer MI Farooqui moved the EC’s petitions.
The bench of Justice AHM Shamsuddin Chowdhury and Justice Jahangir Hossain on April 16 passed the order after hearing a public interest litigation writ filed by Human Rights and Peace for Bangladesh’s general secretary and Supreme Court lawyer Asaduzzaman Siddiqui, challenging the legality of holding city polls before fulfilling the requirements of electoral laws.
In its order, the High Court also asked the Election Commission and the administrators to explain why they should not be directed to hold the polls after re-demarcating the wards, determining which wards should go to which city corporation, the number of councillors in the newly created cities and the number of women’s seats, delimitation of the wards and appointment of the delimitation officers.
The court also set a three-month deadline to complete the delimitation of the wards and update the lists of the voters of Dhaka North City and Dhaka South City Corporations.
The Election Commission must act in accordance with the stipulations of the law regarding delimitation of the wards, and it must determine the number of councillors who are to be elected from Dhaka South City and Dhaka North City Corporations, said the court.
The writ petitioner’s counsel, Manzill Murshid, told reporters that the High Court on July 23 extended its April 16 order staying the DCCs polls for the next three months, and the stay will continue until further directives as the chamber judge did not pass any order on the petition on Sunday.