Although the number of wards in both the city corporations of Dhaka city has increased, there are fewer contestants than in 2015, according to Sushasoner Jonno Nagorik (Shujan).
The civil society platform also reported that most of the candidates in the upcoming city corporation elections are business people while the education level of the candidates has gone down.
Shujan said this revealing their report findings at a press conference at the National Press Club in the capital on Saturday.
The report was prepared analysing affidavits of about 740 candidates competing in Dhaka north and south city corporation elections, scheduled to be held on February 1.
The number of candidates with lower earnings has gone down it said, adding: "On the other hand, the number of candidates with an earning of more than one crore has gone up."
According to Shujan, 13 mayoral candidates are contesting in the election in both of the corporations while the number was 36 in 2015.
In all three categories, the number of candidates in the 2020 polls is 749 (335 in DNCC and 414 in DSCC) while the number was 884 in 2015 (382 in DNCC and 502 in DSCC).
The number of wards in 2020 city polls was 129 while the number in 2015 was 93. DNCC and DSCC had 36 and 57 wards respectively which were later increased to 54 and 75.
The analysis also found that most of the contestants in DNCC (about 66.46%) have lesser earnings but their number went down from that in 2015 (70.70%). At the same time, candidates whose earnings are over one crore has gone up from 0.80% to 2.11% in DNCC.
DSCC follows the same trend, where 69.68% of the candidates have lower earnings but the number goes up to 1.44% (7 candidates) from 0.7% (3 persons).
The analysis also showed that the tendency of businessmen to get involved in politics is going up. This tendency may suggest commercial interests driving interest in public service roles, hampering the public interest.
This year, at DNCC some 72.81% final aspirants are businessmen or traders, while 6.95% aspirants are job holders.
AT DSCC, 73.59% of the aspirants are businessmen or traders, the second highest categories are housewives, followed by jobholders at 5.87%.
In terms of education, 61.32% of all DNCC aspirants have an SSC education level or below.
According to the analysis, the number of lesser educated candidates increased to 61.32% from 59.40% and the higher educated candidates dropped from 27.41% to 25.27%.
In DSCC the number of lesser educated candidates remains almost the same.
The civil society platform also asked the Election Commission to ensure a level playing field during the polls.
It also urged the commission to arrange a free, neutral, and peaceful election.
Shujan Secretary Badiul Alam Majumdar said: "The Election Commission should scrutinize information provided by the candidates but is apparently not doing it. If the commission provides people with correct information, then it becomes easier for voters to make the right choice [in elections]."
"We should use electronic voting machines (EVMs) in polls on the basis of consensus," he said.
Several senior members of the organization were also present during the briefing.
