Deputy commissioners, who have been made returning officers for the upcoming polls, were called in for a meeting at the PMO soon after they were briefed at the Election Commission on November 13, the BNP has alleged.

The presence of observers in the upcoming election will be thinner compared with that in 2008, as both domestic and international organisations are unwilling to deploy strong workforce mainly due to fund crunch.

The High Court has directed the returning officers to receive and scrutinise by today the nomination papers of 13 ward councillor aspirants in Dhaka city corporations’ elections.