Upazila Parishad Election-2024 (1st Phase)
Astounding growth of income and assets of candidates in local govt. elections;
56% of them businessmen: TIB
23.41 per cent candidates have loans or liabilities. Among them, the highest amount of loan is BDT 1,528 crore. The analysis further shows that 16.64 per cent candidates in the first phase of the Upazila elections have been accused in legal cases. On the other hand, only 7 per cent of candidates of the first phase of Upazila Elections are multi-millionaires based on movable assets. Apart from them, around 9 per cent candidates have movable assets less than a crore BDT. Among chairman position aspirants, 94 candidates are multi-millionaires. Compared to the previous election, that number has increased almost three folds (37 multi-millionaires in the 5th election). Among the vice-chairman candidates 17 are multi-millionaires, while 6 candidates are multi-millionaires among women vice-chairman aspirants. In both cases, the numbers have increased by almost three folds. Other than that, 198 chairman candidates earn a minimum of a million BDT annually, which is 35.23 per cent of the total candidates. This is almost 2.5 times that of the election held 5 years ago. Likewise, the number of vice-chairman and women vice-chairman with similar incomes have increased by almost three times.
The analysis of Upazila Election affidavits showed that the participation of women is less compared to the national election. There are only 25 women candidates for the chairman post in the Upazila Elections. Overall, analysis shows that 40 per cent of the candidates do not have taxable incomes as they stated their incomes less than BDT 3.5 lakhs annually. Only 10 per cent of the candidates have presented their incomes to be more than BDT 16 lakhs. Almost 93 per cent of candidates have assets valued less than a crore BDT, while the rest of the 7 per cent have assets valued more than a crore BDT.
The analysis and its results were presented in the press conference by TIB’s Director of Outreach and Communication, Mohammad Tauhidul Islam. TIB Executive Director (ED) Dr. Iftekharuzzaman, and assistant coordinators Rifat Rahman, K.M. Rafiqul Alam and Ikramul Haque Evan were also present. The ‘Know Your Candidate (KYC)’ dashboard containing the multi-dimensional and comparative analysis, overall picture, and Upazila-based comparisons based on 8 types of information provided in almost 4,800 affidavits of the 4th, 5th, and 6th upazila elections have been published on TIB website. The publicly accessible dashboard is available here – https://www.ti-bangladesh.org/kyc
