City polls rescheduled to Feb 1, SSC exams from Feb 3

Elections to both the Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) and Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) will now be held on February 1 instead of January 30.

The Election Commission took the decision at an emergency meeting on Saturday, as per agencies and local TV channels.

Subsequently, the government has also deferred SSC and equivalent exams to Feb 3, which was scheduled to begin on Feb 1.

“The SSC and its equivalent examinations of the all education boards will now begin from February 3. . . the examinations have been differed due to an unavoidable circumstances,” said Deputy Minister for Education Mohibul Hassan Chowdhury.

Amid widespread criticisms and movement by a group of Dhaka University students, the commission started the meeting at 4pm at Nirbachan Bhaban in the city with Chief Election Commissioner KM Nurul Huda in the chair.

Different quarters, including the Hindu community and major mayoral candidates, demanded the deferment of the elections to the Dhaka north and south city corporations slated for January 30 that coincide with Saraswati Puja.