Can university teachers run for parliament?

Defying the Representation of People Order (RPO), at least eight teachers of two public universities have bought nomination forms to contest the upcoming national election. Of them, seven teach at Dhaka University and one at Jagannath University.

Election officials said RPO, the main electoral legal framework of the country, will be applicable for university teachers; and according to it, they would not be able to contest.

However, the nomination aspirants said RPO would not apply to them because universities are autonomous bodies and run by university ordinances.

According to the RPO, a person shall be disqualified for election unless a period of three years has elapsed since the date of their resignation or retirement from public service.

As the teachers are still in their service, they will be disqualified to run the polls, said Abul Kashem, joint secretary of the Election Commission (EC).

“As per RPO, nomination of currently serving university teachers will surely be cancelled by the Election Commission,” said former election commissioner Brig Gen (retd) M Shakhawat Hossain.

Of the eight aspirants, five want AL's nomination, two BNP's, and one from a faction of Bikalpa Dhara Bangladesh.

As per the university ordinance, teachers need not resign until they file final nomination papers to the returning officer (RO) after getting the party ticket, said the teachers.

AKM Jamal Uddin, a professor of sociology of DU, and AL's nomination aspirant for Bhola-4 constituency, claimed that the university is run by the DU Ordinance 1973, which does not impose any such legal bar for teachers to run in the polls.

According to Article 56 (2) of the 1973 ordinance, “...Provided if a teacher or other salaried employee of the University seeks election as a Member of Parliament, he shall before the date for filing nomination resign from the service of the University.”

The Jagannath University Ordinance 2005 also states a similar provision.

Other AL nomination aspirants are Chairman of DU's oceanography department Jobaer Alam; Institute of Business Administration's (IBA) Prof Abu Yusuf Mohammad Abdullah for Satkhira-3; law teacher Dr Selim Mahmud for Chandpur-1; and Jagannath University's Islamic history and culture department teacher Dr Shamsul Kabir for Laxmipur-4.

BNP nomination hopefuls are DU's physics professor ABM Obaidul Islam for Bagerhat-4 and biochemistry and molecular biology professor Dr Mamun Ahmed for Laxmipur-1.

DU's political science professor Nurul Amin Bepari, also president of a portion of Bikalpa Dhara Bangladesh, wants to contest under the banner of the BNP-led alliance.

The Daily Star talked to six of the aspirants. All of them echoed each other, saying that the university ordinances, not RPO, should be applicable for them.

One of the aspirants, Dr Selim Mahmud, demanded an amendment to RPO so that university teachers can run the election immediately after resigning from their post while filing nomination papers, and the three year-timeframe does not apply to them.