Businessmen rule the race

Businesspersons now find their representation in local government bodies more “lucrative” than before, as documents show about 67.5 percent of total councillor candidates are involved in business.

Ironically, only four candidates are politicians.

Of the 745 individuals contesting in 129 wards of Dhaka, 504 councillor candidates have mentioned their profession as business, reveals affidavits of the contenders submitted to the Election Commission (EC) recently.

Meanwhile, voters are also skeptical about the issue.

“Such involvement [of businessmen] creates doubt whether they will prioritise public interest,” said Khandaker Enamul Haque, a banker.

Mahmudul Hasan, a stationary shop owner in Motijheel, said “Election is a business too! They [contenders] are investing now to reap benefits later.”

In 2015, a total of 848 councillor candidates had contested in 93 wards for general and reserve posts.

Of them, 572 councilors had disclosed their profession as business in their affidavits.

Such widespread involvement of businessmen in politics was also noticeable in the 11th parliamentary elections where around 62 percent contestants were businessmen.

Of the 504 businessmen contesting in the upcoming Dhaka city corporation polls, 132 are self-educated and 79 have passed SSC exams.

Interestingly, unemployed and students are also in the candidates’ list. Seventy-nine candidates are homemakers.

On the other hand, nearly 205 councillor candidates mentioned that they are self-educated and more than 150 aspirants have studied up to secondary and higher secondary levels.

Over 90 candidates have obtained bachelor and master’s degrees, according to their affidavits.

According to political analysts, major political parties’ dependency on businessmen has effectively turned politics itself into business.

Shushashoner Jonno Nagorik (Shujan) said similar situation also prevailed in other city corporation elections.

In the 2018 Gazipur City Corporation election, 335 contenders out of 584 were businessmen. In addition, out of 159 recently-elected mayors and councillors in the four city corporations, 103 are involved in business.

Dilip Kumar Sarker, central coordinator of Shujan, said this raises question whether these businesspersons/politicians will devote themselves for the betterment of people.

Addressing a rally on October 12, 2015, President Abdul Hamid also criticised this trend. “It’s a matter of regret that today’s politics has gone into the pockets of businessmen… We have to get rid of it,” the president had said.

Lawyers, businesspersons and farmers were the three most common occupations of the lawmakers elected to the country’s first parliament in 1973. Of the MPs in that parliament, 31 percent were lawyers and only 18 percent were businessmen.

However, in the fifth parliament, constituted through the election of 1991, businessmen outnumbered lawyers, with 38 percent being businessmen and 15 percent lawyers.

After the 2008 polls, 57 percent of the lawmakers elected were businessmen, which rose to 59 percent by 2014.