Staff Reporter:
A minimum bachelor’s degree will be required for candidates aspiring to the positions of chairman and mayor in municipality, city corporation, union and upazila parishad elections.
Additionally, the Local Government Reform Commission is set to recommend eliminating direct voting for electing chairmen and mayors in local body elections to make the local body administration more effective.
The Local Government Reform Commission is expecting to submit its recommendation to the government at the end of February based on opinions of stakeholders from different classes and professions.
While talking to media, Tofail Ahmed, chief of the commission, said that common people have expressed concerns that educated individuals are discouraged from participating in local body elections due to the influence of muscle power and the illegal money of less-educated candidates.
The recommendations will be submitted to the government to ensure that illiterate people cannot become public representatives, encouraging educated people to participate and succeed in elections, he said.
The union parishad members will be elected directly and they will later elect their chairmen who will mandatorily be bachelor’s degree holders.
The municipality and city corporation elections will be held following the same procedures, according to the recommendation of the reform commission.
The commission also proposed reforms to the salary structure, suggesting that a chairman will receive a wage equivalent to a first-class upazila official, while a mayor will receive a salary equivalent to that of an Upazila Nirbahi Officer.
