Editorial
Govt's foot-dragging over DCC polls
Early holding will benefit citizens
THE Election Commission (EC) has been forced to postpone the Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) polls at the government's insistence. The government has put the issue of redrawing the city ward boundaries as the reason for delaying the DCC polls. Evidently, this has upset the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC), who said he was ready to hold the polls on May 31 next.
The government, however, has not explained how re-delimiting of the city wards would lead to a better running DCC administration or that it would lead to bring order in the city which is getting more chaotic with every passing day. What is more, if further delimitation of the city wards is so vital an issue, why did they not complete this work during the last one year and a half that they have been in power? Unfortunately, their delay tactics have only made matters worse for the Election Commission.
To all intents and purposes, with rising discontent among the city's population over the worsening water and power crises, the ruling party is only using the excuse of re-delimitation of wards to avert any possibility of reversal in DCC polls, if it is held earlier.
But what has prompted them to think that further deferment of the mayoral polls through such method will help them come off with flying colours in the long run? For they might well not forget the fact that the Dhaka city is but one of the most complicated metropolitan centres on earth so far as its manageability is concerned. And during the last three years that it has had no functional local government to administer it, it has become more unmanageable. The continued foot-dragging of the government in holding the DCC polls, on the other hand, is only making things worse as the power and water supply situation has shown no sign of improving in the near future and the road traffic has been getting messier. To add to all this, there is the fear that the already potholed roads will become almost unusable during the approaching rainy reason.
In the circumstances, one cannot dismiss the possibility that this inordinate delay in the DCC polls may even prove to be counter-productive, if the mood of the voters is of any concern for the party in power. Worse still, their rivals in the opposition may put this stalemate in the city's administration to their advantage.
So, it would be better advised for the government to have a rethink on the entire issue and cooperate with the EC to hold the elections as early as possible. And once the new DCC mayor is elected, the vacuum in the city administration will go. The government will be then better placed to provide the city dwellers with the basic amenities they are being deprived of for long, if only due to the present state of maladministration in the DCC.
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