The local government representatives have rejected the LGRD minister’s proposal to elect chairmen and mayors by indirect voting instead of the present process of direct election through votes.
Addressing the deputy commissioners on Wednesday, LGRD Minister Syed Ashraful Islam said the Awami League government, if voted to power in the next general elections, would introduce the provision of electing the councillors by direct voting and then the election of the chairmen or mayors would be done through indirect voting by those councillors.
Syed Ashraf envisaged the new idea in line with the recommendations of the government study, conducted by local government expert Professor Tofail Ahmed, on strengthening the local government bodies – district councils, city corporations, municipalities, upazila’s council and union councils.
“This is not acceptable. It goes against the constitutional spirit of electing peoples’ representatives through popular vote,” Harunur Rashid Howladar, the chairman of Association of Bangladesh Upazila Council, told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday.
“If the chairmen and the mayors are elected through indirect votes, they will have no accountability to the people,” said Harunur, also chairman of Dumki upazila in Patuakhali district.
The newly-elected mayor of the Gazipur City Corporation Abdul Mannan also opposed the minister’s proposal.
“Will we go 40 years back? Will we re-introduce basic democracy (of Ayub Khan in the Pakistan era)? This is not acceptable at all,” said Mannan.
Pakistan military ruler Field Marshal Ayub Khan introduced the provision to elect the president through indirect voting by chairmen and the members of the union councils.
Md Sohel, chairman of the Banshbari Union Parishad in Moksudpur of Gopalganj district, told the Dhaka Tribune that the provision of indirect vote would snatch the people’s right to elect their representatives.
Prof Tofail Ahmed elaborated his recommendations on introduction of indirect voting for the local government bodies.
“At present, the local government bodies are totally a ‘one man [chairman or mayor] show.’ The councillors or the councils have no practical power on the decision making,” he said.
For instance, he said, a union council was comprised of an elected chairman and 13 elected councillors. “But the chairman takes all decision making the council totally subservient,” Prof Tofail said.
In the present system, one person is elected from the candidates vying for the post of chairman.
“The election makes one chairman leaving all other chairman aspirants out of the decision making process; no opposition exists in the council,” he said.
“If the chairman is elected from the elected councillors, the rest of the contenders would counter him in the council,” he said.
However, Prof Tofail said the local government minister had raised the idea at a “wrong time.”
Dr Hossain Zillur Rahman, another local government expert, said the minister’s proposal “did not appear to be serious’ as he very often comes up with new ideas with no subsequent follow up.
“His proposal has both negative and positive sides. I think the election of the mayor or the chairman through indirect elections is not the issue, right now,” said the former adviser to a caretaker government.
“The first issue that needs to be settled is: the apathetic attitude of the political parties and the bureaucracy, for which the local government cannot function,” he said.
