Governance rights group Sushaner Jannya Nagorik (Shujan) said on Tuesday that from the information they could gather on the 146 candidates for the December 28 polls, 102 were university graduates and another 22 had either passed their SSC exams or had slightly lesser credentials, reports Bangla Tribune.
"There were 15 people running for the post of District Council chairman who did not even manage to pass out of their high school," said the organisation’s central coordinator, Dilip Kumar Sarkar.
The district council, like the Upazila Council and the Union Council, is another tier of public representation besides the Parliament and the city councils.
Bangladesh is supposed to have public representation in five spheres in order to improve the government’s accountability to the electorate and the quality of governance in each sphere of life.
Speaking at the 'Dhaka Reporters Unity' press conference, Dilip Kumar Sarkar said although the
District Council Act had been amended several times over the past few years, the right organisation did not agree with the law.
“However, we hope that the election runs smoothly,” he said.
Shujan President M Hafiz Uddin Khan and executive members Dr Hamida Hossain and Zakir Hussain were also present at the event.