Local body elections could be held on single day to cut costs: Commission

The Local Government Reform Commission is likely to place a proposal for holding all the local body elections in a particular area on a single day to reduce the election costs.

"It is also being considered whether elections for all local government bodies in an area can be held on the same day. It will reduce the cost of elections," said chief of the commission Dr Tofail Ahmed at a meeting with media persons at the National Institute of Local Government in the capital today.

The Local Government Reform Commission, formed by the interim government on 18 November last year, is supposed to submit their reform report within 90 days after its formation.  

Noting that Tk23,000 crore was spent on various local government elections between 2021 and 2024, he said if the elections were held in a single day, it would have been possible to hold these elections at a cost of Tk6,000 crore.

In this case, there will be no direct election to the post of chairman or mayor in a local body, rather elected members or councilors would elect its chairman or mayor, he added.

Citing that there is no system for local government, he said there should be a unified electoral system for all types of local government bodies to bring these under a system.

"If the local government bodies are brought under a parliamentary-like system (not holding a direct election to the chairman or mayoral post of a local government body), it will be easy to arrange elections," said the commission chief.

Now there are different types of electoral systems for Union Parishad, Upazila Parishad and Zilla Parishad.  

Dr Ahmed said his commission is thinking about a number of reform proposals, including scrapping the provision of using political parties' symbols in the local body elections and reducing interference of local MP in the functions of local bodies.

"There is a line in the circulars that come from the ministries over the development projects of the local government bodies to consult with the local MP, which should not be there," he said.

Dr Ahmed also said they are considering placing a proposal in their report to formulate a unified law for all types of local government bodies.

Raising the views of people from outside Dhaka, Dr Ahmed said his commission is gaining the opinions from the people outside Dhaka to prioritize the arrangement of local body elections.

As per the opinions the reform commission gets from outside Dhaka, people are prioritising local government elections. But it is not being heard much from politicians in Dhaka, he said.

"The local leaders of parties that are demanding early national elections are talking about two elections [local body elections and national election]. Some are talking about local government elections first…some are talking about national and local government elections on the same day," he added.

The commission chief said the opinions of people at the local level are that they are in a vacuum and not getting services from local government bodies. 

"This is why they think that local government elections should be held now. This opinion is also shared by the local leaders of political parties," he added.