AN INCREASE in the moveable assets of candidates re-running for the position of the chair in the upazila council elections in the first phase that take place today, as Transparency International Bangladesh findings show, and an issue that is consequent on the wealth increase come with concern for state agencies and political parties to attend to. The moveable assets of upazila council chair candidates are reported to have increased by up to 4,200 per cent, which appears more than the increase in the wealth of candidates in the January 7 parliamentary elections. Transparency International Bangladesh in a report before the January 7 national elections found an increase by a maximum of 3,065 per cent in moveable assets of a candidate. The agency that works against corruption also says that the number of candidates for the upazila elections with moveable assets worth at least Tk 10 million each has more than doubled in five years. This shows that moveable assets of representatives, elected in either local or national elections, increase by an extent that is not commensurate with the increase in the wealth of other people outside the process. TIB findings further show that the moveable assets of the dependents of such representatives also register an increase, reported in one case by up to 12,400 per cent.
It is, therefore, the responsibility of the Election Commission, the National Board of Revenue and the Anti-Corruption Commission to investigate such increase in the assets of the candidates. While they should investigate such wealth increase on their own, what is disparaging is that the agencies do not do so even after such data are made available. Such an increase in the wealth of the candidates also makes politics expensive and, thereby, makes it difficult for people outside the partisan political fray, who are not that much rich, to contest in the elections. Such a situation is bad for both politics and the nation. And, this encourages only businesspeople to get into politics which could add to moneyed influence on elections. The findings say that the number of candidates for the positions of chair, vice-chair and women vice-chair has increased as 56.61 per cent of them are businesspeople. In the 2019 elections, businesspeople accounted for 53.58 per cent while in the 2014 elections, they accounted for 48.17 per cent. The number of candidates from teaching profession has decreased from 7.84 per cent in 2019 to 4.23 per cent this time and from farming profession from 15.26 per cent to 11.08 per cent this time. Such a worrying dominance of business in the parliament has, as an earlier TIB report shows, also been noticed, with businesspeople having accounted for 65 per cent of the newly elected law makers in the January 7 national elections.
It is, therefore, imperative that agencies such as the Election Commission, the National Board of Revenue and the Anti-Corruption Commission should investigate the increase in moveable assets of the candidates that is not in sync with the increase of wealth of people outside the political process. It is also pertinent that political parties should take up the issue seriously and act on it so that politics does not remain an affair of moneyed interests.