Upazila polls

Staff Correspondent

The Election Commission has formulated rules fixing candidates' electoral and personal expenditure for the upcoming upazila parishad, election commissioner M Sakhawat Hossain said Sunday.

Sakhawat told bdnews24.com Sunday: "A proposal fixing the election expenses for upazila election candidates at between Tk 5 lakh to Tk 10 lakh has been included in the rules."

The commission has fixed the minimum and maximum expenses on the basis of voters numbers in a similar vein to the recent city corporation and municipal elections.

EC officials told bdnews24.com that for upazilas with no more than one lakh voters the highest election expenditure for a contesting candidate will be set at Tk 5 lakh; in those with one to two lakh voters the maximum expenditure will be Tk 7 lakh; and for those with over two lakh voters the maximum expenditure will be set at Tk 10 lakh.

On the same basis of voter numbers, the personal expenditures of the candidates have been fixed at Tk 50,000, Tk 75,000 and Tk 1 lakh.

Sakhawat said the EC formulated the rules following the Local Government (upazila parishad) Ordinance, 2008 promulgated by the president on June 30.

The drafts of the Local Government (upazila parishad) Election Rules, 2008 and Rules of Conduct, 2008 are yet to be vetted by the law ministry, after which they will be published by gazette.

Chief election commissioner ATM Shamsul Huda said on Friday that the draft rules—keeping the qualifications, disqualifications and code of conduct similar to those for the city corporation and upazila polls—would be sent to the law ministry on Sunday.

He added that although the recently concluded city corporation and municipal elections could not be made non-political: "We are contemplating making the upazila elections non-political."

"It could not be done in the case of city and municipal elections as such a mandate was not included by law in time."

"Whether the upazila elections will be non-political or not depends on the decision and will of the government."

Sakhawat said Sunday on the same issue: "We formulate the rules, the government formulates the law. It is up to the government whether it approves or not the EC's recommendations."

The EC is planning to hold upazila elections in October before the national elections in December, in the face of opposition from a number of parties.

Deputy secretary (election) of the EC secretariat Mihir Sarwar Morshed told bdnews24.com Sunday that the EC held the first upazila elections in 1985 and latest in 1990.

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