Local government elections delayed to 'preserve old system': Badiul Alam
He said changes are needed in the local government system to ensure decentralisation of power. At the same time, there is no alternative to people’s participation in ensuring accountability of elected representatives.
Local government elections were deliberately delayed to protect the existing political structure, said Badiul Alam Majumdar, member of the National Consensus Commission and head of the Election Reform Commission, while addressing a seminar today (25 September).
He was speaking as the chief guest at the seminar titled "Can Bangladesh develop without decentralising?" at PRI's Dhaka office.
"Most people wanted local elections before national polls. In our survey, 46,000 respondents supported this. But elections were withheld to preserve the old system, and our reform commission's recommendations were ignored," he said.
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Badiul, who is also the secretary of Sushashoner Jonno Nagorik (Shujan), argued that weakening local government has long been a political strategy. "The Election Commission does not want to give importance to local government elections. Politicians also deliberately undermine local authority. As a result, the expected accountability to the people does not develop."
"The Constitution itself states that local governance should be formed with elected representatives. But in reality, power has been handed over to officials, which goes against the core philosophy.
"A law was enacted that ministers and MPs could not be involved in local government. But over the past 15 years, MPs and ministers were given Tk5 crore each in the name of local development," he said.
Criticising the commercialisation of politics, he further noted, "Politics in the country is no longer about public welfare. Otherwise, union parishad chairmen would not be living in luxury flats worth crores in Bashundhara."
"Politics has now turned into a business. Until politics is fixed and clean candidates come into politics, the overall development of the country will not be possible," he added.
He further said changes are needed in the local government system to ensure decentralisation of power. At the same time, there is no alternative to people's participation in ensuring accountability of elected representatives.
"We need to bring changes in our local governance system, without this, decentralisation is not possible," he added.
Badiul further argued that political reform is indispensable to bringing positive change. But also warned that, "If politics continues to operate as a business rather than a public service, individuals with integrity will remain reluctant to enter the arena, that change will remain on paper, as usual."
