Staff Reporter : Badiul Alam Majumdar, Secretary of Shushashoner Jonno Nagorik (SHUJAN), stated that out of the 297 winners in the election, 147 are loan recipients. This accounts for approximately 50 percent of the total. Among them, 36 individuals have taken loans exceeding Tk 5 crore. Furthermore, 126 of these loan recipients were elected from the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) in the 13th National Parliamentary Election.
Shushashoner Jonno Nagorik (SHUJAN) has questioned why the Election Commission (EC) issued the election gazette late at night without any probe, despite allegations of vote rigging and doubts over whether the election was fair. The issue was raised on Thursday at a press conference held at the National Press Club in Dhaka, where Chief Executive Badiul Alam Majumdar spoke at an event titled “Information on newly elected MPs of the 13th parliament”.
He said that if questions arise over irregularities or fairness during an election, the commission has the authority to investigate, cancel the poll or order a re-election.This time, he said, those questions were raised by many, including SHUJAN, but no investigation was carried out and the gazette was issued in “haste” late at night.Majumdar said once the gazette is issued, the EC’s role effectively ends, leaving the matter to the courts.He argued that the commission should have examined allegations relating to loan defaulters, bill defaulters, dual citizens and other grounds of disqualification before issuing the gazette.
“We suggested the EC certify within 48 hours after the election whether it was conducted fairly. That is important,” he said.Majumdar criticised the EC for merely acting as a rubber stamp for the results provided by returning officers. He called on journalists to conduct their own investigations into candidate affidavits, noting that if evidence of misinformation is found, the commission is still duty-bound to investigate and can potentially cancel an election even after the gazette is published.
Multi-millionaire Lawmakers
SHUJAN’s report shows that 271 of the 297 elected MPs have declared assets worth more than Tk 10 million. According to the findings, wealthy winners account for 91.25 percent of all elected candidates, while 187 MPs, or 62.96 percent, have assets exceeding Tk 50 million. The data were presented at the briefing by SHUJAN central coordinator Dilip Kumar Sarkar.
He said among 209 MPs elected from the BNP, 201, or 96.17 percent, have assets worth more than Tk 10 million.Among 68 MPs from the Jamaat-e-Islami, 52, or 76.47 percent, fall into the same category.Only two MPs, or 0.67 percent, have assets below Tk 2.5 million, while five MPs, including three who did not complete the asset declaration section, account for 1.68 percent.
SHUJAN’s analysis shows that the share of wealthy lawmakers among those elected has risen compared with contesting candidates.While 55.63 percent of all contestants were millionaires, the rate among winners is “significantly higher”.In contrast, candidates with assets below Tk 2.5 million had a “lower” success rate than their overall participation in the race.
The report also shows that compared with the 12th parliament, the proportion of wealthy MPs has increased, from 89.97 percent to 91.25 percent.At the same time, the share of MPs with lower assets has fallen from 3.01 percent to 0.67 percent, indicating declining participation by less affluent candidatesand growing dominance of wealthier contenders.
Top 10 Wealthiest Lawmakers
SHUJAN’s data list BNP lawmaker Sayeed Ahmed of Shariatpur-1 as the wealthiest MP, with declared assets worth Tk 11.99 billion.He is followed by Abdul Awal Mintoo of Feni-3 with Tk 9.46 billion, Zakaria Taher of Cumilla-8 with Tk7.70 billion, Golam Mohammad Siraj of Bogura-5 with Tk 6.13 billion, and Md Shafiqur Rahman (Kiron) of Shariatpur-2 with Tk 5.57 billion.
The list also includes Fakhar Uddin Ahmed of Mymensingh-11 with Tk 4.65 billion, Nasser Rahman of Moulvibazar-3 with Tk 3.80 billion, Md Jalal Uddin of Chandpur-2 with Tk 3.64 billion, Mirza Abbas of Dhaka-8 with Tk 3.25 billion, and independent MP Md Abdul Hannan of Chandpur-4 with Tk 3.18 billion.
