Country’s leading Constitution experts, local government experts and civil society members have blamed lapses of the Election Commission (EC) for the court order that has stayed holding of the Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) elections for three months.

They said the EC's inefficiency and incapability was responsible for the legal problem. The EC failed to plug the loopholes of the law before announcing the election schedule for the DNCC polls, they noted.

They came up with the observations hours after the HC stayed the DNCC mayoral by-election and councillor polls scheduled for February 26.

Constitution expert Dr Shahdhin Malik alleged that though legal problems in holding the DNCC polls have been discussed widely for the last couple of months, the EC did not take them into account. “The EC’s inefficiency and incapability has been clear through the court order,” he said.

Shahdhin Malik, however, said if there is any efficient official in the EC, it will be possible to hold the DNCC polls within two to three months, after resolving the legal problems and informing the court about its action. He  also said the EC should learn from the incident and reorganise the EC with efficient officials.

“If there is a loophole in the law, anyone can exploit it. In this case, such an opportunity has been utilised by aggrieved persons,” said eminent local government expert Tofayel Ahmed.

He also said the EC announced the schedule without delimitation of boundaries, publication of the latest voter list and determining the tenure of ward councillors of the 18 new wards.

Both the local government and the EC are responsible for the situation as they did not take legal opinion in this regard, he added.

Referring to the inclusion of 18 wards in 2016, Tofayel questioned as to why the EC did not hold the polls in the meantime. When the EC wanted to hold elections in those wards, why did it not address the electoral laws and political rights properly, he questioned. He said now the EC would have to convince the court by taking necessary measures.

Former election commissioner Brig. Gen. (Retd) M Sakhawat Hossain said there is no such precedence in neighbouring countries to stay elections after the election schedule is announced.

He also said if there were any anomalies or loopholes in the law, the EC was supposed to address it.

Sakhawat further said it was not a good sign to stay the election process during submission of nomination papers. The EC now can take legal steps to overcome the hurdles in a bid to hold the DNCC polls at the soonest, he added.

Secretary of Sushasoner Jonno Nagorik (Sujan), Dr Badiul Alam Majumder, sees the postponement of the DNCC polls as a violation of both election laws and the spirit of the Constitution.

According to Article 59/1 of the Constitution, local government bodies would be run by elected persons while the election rules make it compulsory to hold the election within three months if any post falls vacant, he mentioned.

Majumder regretted that the EC and the local government ministry are blaming each other to shrug off responsibilities. He questioned the hurriedness of the court in giving the order, resulting in the people being deprived of voting rights.

The Sujan spokesperson hoped that the EC would take quick steps to resolve the issues by removing its faults.

Replying to a question, he said those responsible for the situation should have to be accountable to the voters.