More than 57pc aspirants businesspeople

More than 57 percent candidates running in the second phase of the upazila polls are businesspeople, according to the affidavits they submitted to the Election Commission.
Of all the candidates vying for the chairman posts, 70.51 percent said they were involved in business, while 68.73 percent of the vice chairman candidates listed business as their profession.
The numbers were presented by Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) yesterday at their office in the capital's Dhanmondi, following an analysis of candidates' affidavits.
The upazila polls are being held in phases. The first phase was held on May 8, while the second is scheduled for tomorrow.
Around 70 percent of chairman candidates in the first phase listed "business" as their profession. The numbers were 67 percent for vice chairman candidates and 24 percent for women vice chairman candidates.
Mentionable, 105 chairman candidates have movable assets worth at least Tk 1 crore. There are eight such vice chairman post aspirants and three other vice chairman candidates vying for the reserved seats for women. In total, 116 candidates have assets worth at least Tk 1 crore.
According to the TIB, a candidate's moveable asset value determines whether or not he qualifies as a millionaire. Immovable assets, like real estate, are not taken into consideration as evaluating them is challenging.
Elections will be held in 160 upazilas in the second phase. Of them, affidavits of candidates contesting in 157 upazilas have been received by the TIB.
Across these 157 upazilas, 599 candidates are vying for the chairman posts, 689 for vice chairman, and 523 for women vice chairman.
According to the TIB's analysis, 12.17 percent said their profession is agriculture, 4.17 percent said they are lawyers and 4.17 percent teachers.
Meanwhile, 52 percent of the women vice chairman candidates said they are homemakers, while 29 said they are involved in business.
Businesspeople are becoming keen on participating in the local elections as well as the national elections. Their numbers have increased by eight percent compared to the 2014 upazila parishad elections.
On the other hand, the number of homemakers, agriculturalists, and teachers is decreasing by the day, as per TIB's observations.
In the first phase of this year's upazila polls, almost 70 percent of the chairman post candidates were businessmen. Among them, 94 were millionaires.
THE RICH
Jahangir Alam, chairman candidate of Noakhali's Senbagh, tops the list of candidates with the most amount of movable assets. His total movable wealth is Tk 84.76 crore.
Sudhir Chowdhury of Dhaka's Dhamrai was second with Tk 35.55 crore. Mohammad Idris Farazi was third with movable assets worth Tk 22.87 crore.
According to the law, an individual can acquire a maximum of 33 acres of land. Four candidates were found to have land exceeding this limit.
At the top of this list is Shariatpur's Jazira Upazila Parishad chairman candidate SM Aminul Islam, who owns 54.6 acres of land.
Compared to the 2019 upazila parishad elections, Sonali Khatun, the female vice chairman candidate of Daulatpur in Kushtia, has seen the highest growth in income as her wealth increased by 10,900 percent over the last five years.
Seven more candidates, including three vying for the female vice chairman posts and two for chairman posts, have increased their income by over 2,000 percent.
Apart from this, it was disclosed that Asaduzzaman, candidate for chairman of Netrakona East, is the most indebted candidate with a loan of Tk 310.94 crore. Cumilla Sadar Dakshin chairman candidate Mohammad Aktaruzzaman was second with a debt of Tk 99.15 crore and Md Sohag Mia Vice Chairman of Pirojpur's Nesharabad was third with debts of Tk 35.87 crore.
Addressing the event, TIB Executive Director Iftekharuzzaman said most of the candidates belong to the ruling party and the dominance of businesspersons is the same as before.
"There are questions about the information given in the affidavits of the chairman candidates. In the available data, an abnormal surge in movable and immovable assets has been noticed," he said.
The TIB executive director said politics is directly linked to the increase of power and income which is why the party cannot maintain discipline.
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