All local govt elections to be held within a year: Fakhrul

Authorities are working to arrange all the local government elections within the next 12 months, said Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, minister for local government, rural development and cooperatives, on Tuesday.

He made the remarks at a press briefing held after the sixth session of the DC Conference hosted at the Osmani Memorial Auditorium in the capital.

Stressing the need for holding the elections at the earliest, the minister said the local government is the strongest foundation for a country’s democracy, and also the strongest grassroots entity.

Fakhrul said the government will also launch probes into the massive corruption engineered in the local government bodies over the past 16 years.

Earlier in the day, Zahed Ur Rahman, information and broadcasting adviser to the prime minister, said that the first phase of the local government elections could begin at the end of the year.

“Once the electoral process starts, it may take between 10 months to a maximum of one year to complete all phases,” he said, while speaking at a weekly press briefing held at the Secretariat.