182 businessmen elected to parliament

As many as 182 businessmen have been elected as lawmakers in 11th general election. This amounts to almost 61.07 per cent of the total members of the parliament, Shushasoner Jonno Nagorik (Shujan) in a press conference said on Sunday.

The organisation made this observation in a press conference at Dhaka Reporters’ Unity’s Sagor-Runi auditorium after analysing the declarations submitted by 298 elected lawmakers to the election commission.

The civil society organisation pointed out that among the 182 businessmen lawmakers, 174 were from the ruling Awami League led- 'mahajote' (grand alliance) while five from Jatiya Oikya Front and three others independent MPs.

Citing that the number of wealthy persons and businessmen increased in the parliament this term, Shujan secretary Badiul Alam Majumder said, the alarming side of the election was, though the people had the right to vote, their chances of being representatives was steadily shrinking.

He mentioned it as a good sign that the parliament had a large number of educated persons and highest tax payers as lawmakers in this election.

There are 112 graduates and 124 with post graduate degrees who are from the 'grand alliance' while 2 hold graduate degrees and 2 others post graduate degrees among the Front elected members.

However, 11 elected members from 'grand alliance' did not pass the secondary school certificate (SSC) exams, the Shujan report showed.

Badiul Alam Majumder told the media that there were many ineligible candidates including convicted people who participated in the election and won.

“Those who hid information, should not be given nomination in the first place. Many of them have business involvement with the government while many were government officials. Such people have also been elected and the election commission did not play their due role in this regard,” he added.