Hold long-pending DCC polls

It is a shame when twelve years go by with a significant elected body getting to be stymied through an absence of fresh elections. The last time elections were held to the Dhaka City Corporation was in 2002. Mayor Sadek Hossain Khoka, elected that year, stayed in office four years beyond the expiry of his term. He went only when the Awami League-led government removed him and split the DCC into two.
The bifurcation of the municipal body, though controversial, should have led to swift measures toward ensuring two elected, transparent organisations for city dwellers. That has not happened. Despite all other elections poised to take place in the country, the mystifying silence of the government regarding new polls to the two DCCs does not go down well with the denizens. Add to that the bureaucracy which has come into the whole process. What is surely mortifying is the delay in demarcating the new boundaries of the corporations, a situation that has put even the High Court and the Election Commission in a quandary. Must the LGRD ministry carry on with the kind of indifference it has demonstrated on the issue so far?
We urge the government and the EC to expedite the process of holding the DCC polls. With Dhaka having become the worst city to live in across the globe, it becomes an imperative for the DCC polls to be held. Besides, let no one forget that all elections matter in a democracy. Pushing an important election aside drills holes in the structure of accountable governance.