Tk 6.5b needed for UP, municipal polls

The Election Commission (EC) is preparing for elections to 4,000 Union Parishad (UP) and over 300 municipalities and that may cost the government nearly Tk  6.5 billion, reports bdnews24.com.
The EC has asked its field level officials to send lists of municipalities and Union Parishad ready for elections before requesting the finance ministry for necessary funds to hold the polls in the next budget.
The commission's Deputy Secretary (budget) Shahjahan Khan told the news agency on Thursday that the EC had a discussion on the budget proposed for the two big polls in the next fiscal year.
"It (proposed budget) will be sent to the [finance] ministry after getting the commission's approval," he said.
The sixth session of the 10th Parliament will start on June 1.
Finance Minister AMA Muhith is scheduled to present the proposed budget for 2015-16 fiscal year in this session on June 4.
Khan said the cost of the elections will rise if the new pay scale for public servants is implemented.
A secretary-level committee has submitted proposal to raise salary of government officials.
Finance Minister Muhith has promised to implement it from July 1.
The allowance for the officials and security personnel deployed for the voting would be in line with the new pay scale, according to EC officials.
EC senior assistant secretary (budget) Enamul Haque said they proposed to allot around Tk 5.5 billion for the union parishad polls and Tk 1.0 billion for the elections to the municipalities.
More than half of the election cost is spent on security-related expenses.
There are 4,571 UP and 319 municipalities in Bangladesh now.
The elections to these local bodies were held in 2011. Over 250 of 308 municipalities saw voting from January 12 to 18 that year.
The voting in around 600 coastal UPs was held from March 29 to April 3 the same year while in the rest, polls were held between May 31 to July 5.
According to the union parishad and municipal acts, elections to union parishad must be held in the last six months of the term of an elected council. For the municipalities, the time is the last 90 days.
Election Commissioner Md Shah Nawaz said January-February in 2016 is suitable time to start the elections.
"The polls can be held until June-July," he said.
He also said the by-elections to the vacant local bodies were underway.