City Polls
Dhaka citizens cast vote after 13 years
It has been long 13 years and three days to be exact since the citizens of Dhaka participated last time in any city corporation election. The election for the undivided city corporation in the capital was held for the last time on 25 April 2002. With the election on Tuesday (28 April), the wait for 13 years has come to an end for the voters of Dhaka. About 43 lakh voters will elect two mayors for the cities.
Bangladesh Nationalist Party vice-chairman Sadek Hossain Khoka was elected in 2002 as the last mayor of undivided Dhaka city. Bangladesh Awami League did not participate in the election. The five years tenure of Sadek Hossain ended on 14 May 2007. But the then ruling army backed caretaker government did not take any initiative for holding city election. Sadek Hossain Khoka was in power till 1 December 2011.
In 2011, the ruling Awami League led Grand Alliance passed a new law regarding city corporation. With Local Government (City Corporation) (amendment) Bill 2011, the Dhaka City Corporation was split into two separate entities.
Dhaka North City Corporation was formed with 36 wards, and with 57 wards Dhaka South City Corporation was formed. The corporations proceeded with nonelected administrative officials. The then government appointed two administrators for the corporations.
Once administrator, now elected leader
On 30 January 1994 people directly participated in the mayoral election during the BNP government headed by Khaleda Zia. Awami League leader Mohammad Hanif was elected as the mayor for the first time by the people defeating BNP-backed candidate Mirza Abbas. He held the office of the mayor till 4 April 2002.
Dhaka Municipality was established in 1864. According to Banglapedia, back then Dhaka was small city with a population of only 52,000. It got new identity as a corporation in 1983 during the regime of HM Ershad. Dhaka was declared as ‘corporation’ by the ‘Dhaka Municipality Corporation Ordinance’ in the same year. Since then Dhaka was known as ‘Dhaka Municipality Corporation’. The corporation began its journey with 75 elected commissioners, 10 selected female commissioners, and 5 public commissioners. A mayor was selected from the elected commissioners. Later, to modify the system, the mayoral post was given to divisional commissioner by virtue of his position.
Later during the BNP government Dhaka was converted into a city corporation by enacting Dhaka City Corporation (Amendment) Act in 1993. According to this act mayor and commissioners will be elected by the votes of adult citizens.
On 30 January 1994, the citizens for the first time cast their votes to elect a city mayor.