Zila Parishad in Bangladesh

Recently, the local government minister indicated that the government could arrange Zila Parishad elections within the current year under the Zila Parishad Act 2000. The statement created a ray of hope, as it seemed like under the current government, the 130-year old dormant institution would be getting an appropriate shape of a legally constituted local government institution. If the government is truly committed to reorganising the Zila Parishads, it would obviously be a welcome step, which will complete the whole cycle of local government election and institution. The government will also honour the constitutional provision to have local government institutions in all the administrative units of the country. 

There were efforts since the independence to bring political appointees at the district level of all subsequent governments, but no clear step to organise the Zila Parishads as per the direction of the Constitution was undertaken. The AL government in its first term (1971-1975) took a decision to appoint 'District Governor's in all the districts. The government could not implement the scheme due to the discontinuation of the government after the sad demise of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman on August 15, 1975. The BNP government in its first term appointed a District Development Coordinator (DDC), who used to hold office at the Zila Parishad building, but there were no efforts to revive the Zila Parishad in accordance with the provision of the Constitution of the Republic. The DDCs were given the status of the Deputy Minister but the functions were ambiguous and the system ended with the end of BNP rule. 

During General Ershad's time in 1988, Zila Parishads started functioning as a body with appointed Chairs. Mostly Jatiya Party MPs were appointed as Chairs of the Parishads, and they also enjoyed the status of Deputy Ministers. Again, the effort ended with the end of the regime. After a new democratic order since 1990s, the Zila Parishads existed as a physical entity with its age old building, staff and officials but never functioned as an elected LG unit. It remained as an appendix of district administration for a quite long time and as an office of the ministry of the local government. Under the current government since 2009, MPs of the district along with appointed officials played a major role in the resource distribution of the Zila Parishads.

The latest significant development began with the enactment of the Zila Parishad Act 2000 (though the Act was kept active up to 2012) by the AL government and later, the appointment of Zila Parishad Administrators in December 2011 under Article 82 of the Act. The administrators are appointed from party rank and file. Some of them are party veterans, former MPs, freedom fighters, retired civil and army officials. They have been drawing salaries of Tk. 27,500, while also receiving facilities such as an entertainment allowance of TK. 3,000 and a vehicle with driver and seven litres of fuel per day. Since the first budget of the People's Republic of Bangladesh in 1972-1973, Zila Parishads have regularly been receiving budgetary allocations from the national government. Almost all the Zila Parishad administrators have been receiving property allocations and other assets since the British and Pakistan regime. In spite of a regular budgetary allocation, the reason as to why government after government has not shown any concern to reorganise the Zila Parishads into a properly functional local government institution, remains unclear. 

Reorganisation of the Zila Parishad in Bangladesh will be a historic event in the existing system of local governance. Since it has been an overdue issue for the last 45 years of Bangladesh, on the eve of this historic moment, we would like to suggest few important measures for the consideration of the government to make the system more representative, accountable and participatory. The existing Zila Parishad Act has to be amended to hold the election in view of the changes in the formation of the 'Electoral College System', and also to have the party symbols during the electoral contests as other local government bodies followed in the last election. 

Our humble suggestion would be to amend the existing Zila Parishad law for holding election on the basis of universal adult franchise, instead of the Electoral College system. Every eligible voter of the district should be given the chance to choose their representative in the Zila Parishads. The whole district may be divided into a reasonable number of constituencies or wards based on the number of voters. 

One of the studies we recently conducted (Bangladesh: Reform Agenda for Local Governance, Prothoma, 2016) suggests that to create Zila Parishad wards the population and voters need to be considered. There should not be a uniform number of wards and membership, irrespective of population and size of the district. The study suggests 50,000 population and 25/30,000 voters with 10 percent adjustment for matching contiguity, compactness, territorial integrity and convenience of drawing reasonable boundary may form one Zila Parishad Ward. 

There may be another alternative as well, that at least three constituencies or wards may be created in each upazila or one upazila may be divided into three wards of Zila Parishad - two for general seats and one reserve seat for women. General voters should be given the chance to elect the members from their respective Zila Parishad wards. After the general election, the chairmen will be elected by the members elected in the respective council from amongst them. If this type of electoral system is created, District Councils may be composed of 30-60 members depending on their size and population. In West Bengal, the Wards of Zila Parishads vary between 52 to 92, and the number of wards at the village panchayet level varies from 7 to 35.

If the Zila Parishad election is held in 2016, it will be a landmark incident in the history of local government in Bangladesh. We are looking forward to the first ever Zila Parishad election in Bangladesh with great interest and enthusiasm.

The writer is a social scientist and local governance expert. He is currently the Director of Governance for Manusher Jonno Foundation. 

E-mail: tofail101@gmail.com.