The Election Commission has asked concerned officials to make public the affidavits of the candidates in the upazila parishad polls.
The EC yesterday issued a circular signed by Deputy Secretary of the commission Mihir Sarwar Morshed asking the returning officers and district election officers to take steps in this regard.
According to the circular, the commission asked the returning officers to send the affidavit copies of candidates through its content management system as soon as possible. The EC also asked them to make the affidavits available to anyone.
A photocopy of the affidavit will be given to anyone who asks for it.
When asked whether the commission would upload the affidavits to the EC’s website, a senior assistant secretary of EC told the Dhaka Tribune that the commission did not upload the affidavits in the last upazila polls.
“Right now the commission has no plan to upload the affidavits from upazila parishad polls to its website,” he said.
However, the senior official said the affidavits would be made public from the returning officer’s office at the respective upazilas. The commission had asked the returning officers to send the affidavits through the CMS for preservation, he added.
The EC started publishing the affidavits from ninth parliamentary poll in 2008. The commission also published the affidavits of third upazila parishad polls held in 2009.
But in the 10th parliament poll, the commission published the candidates’ affidavits which included their wealth statements. Several reports were published in the media on the unnatural increases in the wealth of cabinet members and ruling party MPs by comparing the affidavits of ninth and 10th parliamentary polls.
Now the Anti-Corruption Commission is investigating six Awami League candidates’ wealth statements in 10th parliament. It has sought the copies of their affidavits from the EC. The commission has asked the concerned returning officers to send two certified copies of each candidate’s affidavit by February 5. Before the 10th parliamentary poll, Awami League had requested the commission to stop publishing the affidavits.
