The candidates for Rangpur City Corporation (RCC) polls were mostly businessmen and the educational qualification of more than half of them was below the Secondary School Certificate (SSC) level, according to a report by Shushashoner Jonno Nagorik (SHUJAN). The report said at least four mayoral contestants out of seven have criminal cases, while 52 out of 212 candidates eyeing the posts of ward councillors have such cases pending against them. In the case of women, four candidates out of the 65 contesting from reserved seats have criminal cases, it added. The report revealed the information based on the information on the affidavits of the candidates submitted to the Election Commission (EC). The report was presented at a press conference at Dhaka Reporters Unity yesterday, with its president M Hafizuddin in the chair.
The assistant chief coordinator of SHUJAN, Sanjida Haque Bipasa, in a statement said at least 169 candidates out of 284 were involved in different businesses—this indicates the dominance of businessmen in the RCC polls.
Of the seven mayoral candidates, five are businessmen. Of the other two, Abdul Kuddus did not mention his profession on the affidavit and Sharfuddin has written his profession as “politician”.
At least 150 aspiring ward councillors out of 212 were businessmen, while 20 were involved in agriculture. On the other hand, 40 councillor aspirants from the 65 reserved seats were housewives and 14 of them were into business.
Sanjida said two mayoral candidates earned below Tk. 5 lakh annually, three had annual income between Tk. 5 to 25 lakh, and one earned over Tk. 25 lakh. Sarfuddin Ahmed earned the maximum of Tk. 45.93 lakh, BNP candidate Kawsar Zaman earned Tk. 15.90 lakh and Mostafizur Rahman had an annual income of Tk. 10.12 lakh.
But BASAD candidate Abdul Kuddus did not show any income.
About the increase in earnings of the mayoral candidates between the years 2012 and 2017, the report said Sarfuddin’s annual income
had increased the highest by Tk. 1.33 crore (809.67 per cent) and Zaman’s earnings rose to Tk. 1.44 crore (143.36 per cent). During the same period, Mostafizur’s income decreased by 70.35 per cent.
The report said the educational qualifications of at least 167 candidates out of a total of 284 were of the SSC level or below.
The SHUJAN report further said two mayoral candidates were postgraduates, three were graduates and two of them were Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) holders.
At least 81 out of the 212 candidates for ward councillors for 33 wards have qualifications below SSC, while 44 have SSC and 41 HSC level education. Of the rest, 32 were graduates 32 and 10 postgraduates.
At least 25 out of 65 candidates for the 11 reserved seats for women have qualifications below SSC, while 17 have SSC and eight HSC level education. The number of graduates was eight and postgraduates six.
The report said Sharfuddin has a loan amount of Tk. 9 lakh, while Hossain Makbul Shahriar and Mostafizur have pending loans of Tk. 15 lakh each.
Addressing the gathering, the Dhaka Reporters Unity president said: “Voters’ right to get information about the candidates has been established after a long struggle. It is necessary so that voters can cast votes after knowing about the candidates through affidavits. But we have seen that the quality of contestants has not gone up in the RCC polls.”
SHUJAN secretary Badiul Alam Majumder said: “It is necessary to know about the candidates before casting votes. If the citizens get information about the candidates, it helps them to elect their representatives.”
He also accused the EC of not scrutinising the information that the candidates had mentioned in their affidavits.
Columnist Syed Abul Maksud said: “The electoral process should be made clean for building up a democratic society. We want to see a fair and peaceful election. For it, EC cannot work alone. The government, administration and voters have duties as well.”