Businessmen take lead in zila parishad polls, says Shujan
UNB
Like other elections, businessmen are leading the list of candidates of the upcoming Zila Parishad polls, says Shushasoner Jonno Nagorik (Shujan), a rights body working for good governance, reports UNB.
Analysing the affidavits of candidates uploaded on the Election Commissions website, Shujan found that 83 (57 percent) chairman candidates out of 146 are businessmen while 23 (16 percent) lawyers.
Shujan central coordinator Dilip Kumar Sarkar presented the findings of its analysis at a press conference held at Dhaka Reporters Unity (DRU) yesterday.
He said although 149 chairman candidates are taking part in the Zila Parishad polls scheduled to be held on December 28, affidavits of three contestants were not available on the EC website.
The Shujan analysis says a total of 2,998 candidates are vying for general member posts while 820 for reserved member seats.
About the educational qualification of chairmen candidates, Shujans data reveal that 102 candidates are graduates and 22 either passed secondary school certificate examination or did not achieve it.
Among them, 15 chairmen candidates are currently facing criminal cases and 36 faced such cases in the past. And eight candidates had faced criminal cases in the past and are now also facing those.
Speaking at the press conference, Shujan president M Hafiz Uddin Khan said candidates in 22 zila parishads are going to be elected unopposed which is really frustrating.
He said general people have no scope of voting for their candidates in the polls as electoral bodies will choose the candidates.
Hafiz Uddin said Shujan will continue to raise its demand for introducing general voting system so that citizens can directly elect their candidates by exercising their voting rights.
Shujan executive member Hamida Hossain and its assistant secretary
Zakir Hossain were present at the
press conference.
