The influence of businessmen is increasingly evident in local government elections, leading to a predominance of politics for profit or personal interest over public welfare, according to Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB).
The corruption watchdog made this observation during a press conference on Monday, that was arranged to present their analysis of the affidavits the contenders submitted with their nomination papers for the first phase of the Sixth Upazila Parishad Election.
The same analysis revealed astonishing increases in wealth among incumbent Upazila Parishad representatives, outdoing even MPs - although most of them would have started from a lower base compared to MPs.
TIB said there is a growing tendency to view elections as an 'investment opportunity' ignoring public interest, and this has now evidently spread to the grassroots level as well.
According to TIB's analysis of candidate affidavits, the growing influence of businessmen in local government elections is now almost similar to the national election, where the influence of businesses has been noted from even earlier.
The proportion of candidates with business backgrounds has risen by 8 percentage points compared to the fourth election, reaching 56 percent.
Among these candidates, some 69.86 percent of chairman candidates, 66.59 percent of vice chairman candidates, and 24.37 percent of female vice chairman candidates are involved in businesses.
Additionally, 19.5 percent of candidates listing their occupation as housewife or housekeeper derive income from business ventures.
Speaking at the press conference, TIB Executive Dr Iftekharuzzaman said, “In our country, politics and public representation are power-oriented. Personal gain often takes priority over public welfare. Additionally, principles such as respect for the law, party discipline, and adherence to party decisions, which are expected from democratic institutions like political parties, are now held hostage to power politics.”
He said the pursuit of political power is seen as a pathway to unlimited wealth expansion, resulting in unhealthy competition.
“Of concern is whether businessmen entering politics are following proper procedures and engaging in fair competition. Those who still aspire to promote a healthy, people-oriented political culture are now nearly extinct or marginalised in the face of power politics,” he added.
In continuation of their regular analysis of candidates' affidavits ahead of parliamentary elections in the country, TIB conducted dashboard analysis and reviewed affidavits of candidates participating in Upazila Parishad elections.
The TIB executive director termed the results of the analysis of the candidates' wealth statements as 'shocking'.
Over a 5-year period, the highest spike in movable assets among parliamentarians, according to TIB's own analysis, had been recorded at a staggering 3065%, prior to the 12th parliamentary election.
But among incumbent Upazila Parishad chairmen - starting from a comparatively lower base in most cases - who are running again in this year's election (phase 1), the highest spike in movable assets has been recorded at an astounding 4251%.
When it comes to income, the highest growth recorded among Upazila Parishad chairmen was an eye-watering 3319% over 5 years, which went up to an incredible 18233% for a chairman incumbent for 10 years now.
The highest increase in assets belonging to wives and dependents among the UP chairmen running again is an almost obscene 12,400%.
“From the analysis, we see that the earnings of many candidates have increased astonishingly, and in some cases, the rate of increase of income and wealth is even higher than that of national election candidates. There are also doubts whether the information provided in the affidavits are legit or correct. Some candidates have presented very low income, which is unbelievable.”
The analysis of affidavits also portrayed how at least nine candidates own more land than the legal limit of 100 bigha or 33 acres.
Moreover, 23.41 percent of candidates have loans or liabilities. Among them, the highest amount of loan is BDT 1,528 crore.
The analysis further shows that 16.64 percent candidates in the first phase of the Upazila elections have been accused in legal cases.
On the other hand, only 7 percent of candidates of the first phase of Upazila Elections are multi-millionaires based on movable assets, while some 9 percent candidates have movable assets less than a crore BDT.
Among them, 94 chairman aspirants and 23 vice chairman aspirants, including six hopefuls for reserved seats are multi-millionaires. But there were 37 multi-millionaires in the 5th election.
TIB's analysis 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.
TIB’s Director of Outreach and Communication, Mohammad Tauhidul Islam presented the analysis.