Electoral tickets for sale now
It is impossible to get nomination for polls without money as the system has allegedly become a trade in exchange for money, said Brig Gen (retd) M Sakhawat Hussain, a former election commissioner, yesterday.
“But I have to think over whether I should use the word 'allegedly',” he told a discussion, “Strengthening Women's Representation in the Local Government”, organised by the Brac Institute of Governance and Development (BIGD) in a hotel in the capital.
The civil society, along with enforcing authorities and political parties, should think over how to implement the Representation of the People Order provision stipulating that at least 33 percent of posts in intra-party committees be held by women by 2020, he said.
Increasing women's representation in local governments will not be possible if their participation in grassroots level politics is not raised, said Sakhawat, expressing frustration over a decrease in the number of women voters.
The percentage of women voters was 51 while he was in office and it has now declined to 48, he said, stating of the necessity of finding why their interest to become voters was declining.
“It is also alarming when voters fear participating in elections...the election atmosphere is gradually going from bad to worse,” he observed.
Local government expert Tofail Ahmed observed that people were not getting services properly from local government institutions.
“Local government is now in ICU. Because elections are not being held in a free and fair manner,” he said, adding that appointments had replaced elections in union parishads and that the number of male voters had also decreased.
In a keynote speech, Maheen Sultan, a visiting BIGD fellow, said through keeping reserved seats for women in local governments initially proved to be a success, the number of women contestants has declined over time.
Referring to some NGO reports, she said there were 2,900 female contestants in the 2009 elections to 480 upazilas and 1,507 in 458 upazilas during the 2014 polls, showing a decrease of 48 percent.
Noted media personality Muhammad Jahangir moderated the programme while BIGD Executive Director Sultan Hafeez Rahman gave the welcome speech.
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