Blaring campaign loudspeakers hurt ears, doubling noise pollution

At around 9:30 pm this Thursday, cultural activist Said Khan Sagar after coming back from outside was taking rest at his home in Arshinagar area of Keraniganj, on the outskirts of Dhaka.

However, his peace was shattered by the piercing noise of loudspeakers used in election campaigning. Distressed, he called the national emergency service hotline 999. Police arrived shortly afterwards and stopped the use of the loudspeaker.

Sagar told Prothom Alo that election-related noise pollution is disrupting normal daily life. Although the use of loudspeakers after 8:00 pm is prohibited, no one seems to be following the rule. “I was forced to seek help by calling 999. The police later came and shut it down,” said Sagar.

Noise pollution is a major source of public suffering in Dhaka and other major cities across the country.

During the ongoing campaign for the 13th parliamentary elections, incessant use of loudspeakers, along with loud music and slogans blaring from campaign vehicles, has significantly worsened the situation. Residential areas, markets, officially declared silent zones and even hospitals are not being spared.

Yet the Election Commission’s Election Code of Conduct 2025 clearly states that the use of microphones, sound systems and loudspeakers for campaigning must be limited to between 2:00 pm and 8:00 pm. The sound level of such equipment must not exceed 60 decibels.

In addition, the Noise Pollution Control Rules 2025 prohibit the use of microphones, sound systems and loudspeakers for election campaigns in government-declared silent zones. The rules empower union parishads, municipalities, city corporations, metropolitan police and urban development authorities to declare areas or parts of areas under their jurisdiction as silent zones to control noise pollution.

On 2 February, a directive signed by the Dhaka Metropolitan Police commissioner declared areas within 100 metres of hospitals, educational institutions, courts and offices as silent zones. Earlier on 16 September 2025, another gazette notification declared Gulshan, Banani, Baridhara and Niketan as silent zones under the Dhaka North City Corporation.

Shah Rafayet Chowdhury, a resident of Gulshan-1, told Prothom Alo that Gulshan is a government-declared silent zone, yet every five minutes either balance-scale or sheaf-of-paddy election campaigns are blaring at high volume.

Candidates are creating noise pollution by mounting loudspeakers on auto-rickshaws and rickshaws, he said, adding that this sets a poor example of candidates ignoring the code of conduct. “It’s not just Gulshan. My office is in Niketan, and it’s the same there,” he added.

Although the election code of conduct sets the sound limit at 60 decibels, research by the Centre for Atmospheric Pollution Studies (CAPS) at Stamford University Bangladesh has found noise levels ranging from 120 to 130 decibels.

CAPS has been monitoring noise pollution during the election campaign. Its founder and dean of the Faculty of Science at Stamford University, Ahmad Kamruzzaman Majumder told Prothom Alo, “In normal times, noise levels in residential areas and major intersections of the capital ranged between 80 and 90 decibels. Since the start of election campaigning, average levels have risen to 120-130 decibels.”

CAPS recorded similar levels of noise pollution in Mirpur, Mohammadpur, Aminbazar, Uttara, Tongi, Keraniganj, Khilgaon, Dhanmondi, Shantinagar, Malibagh and Old Dhaka areas of the capital.

Kamruzzaman Majumder said that while the Election Commission has set a 60-decibel limit, it has also allowed the use of loudspeakers. “When a loudspeaker is used, it produces at least 100 decibels of sound. This is a contradiction.”

He suggested that, just as posters have been banned, the use of loudspeakers in election campaigning should also be prohibited.

Last Thursday, this correspondent visited Dhaka Medical College Hospital, the National Institute of Burn and Plastic Surgery, and the area around Shahbagh’s Bangladesh Medical University (former BSMMU).

Md Rabiul, who sells coconuts from a van beside the wall of Bangladesh Medical University, said the area falls under the Dhaka-8 constituency, where BNP candidate Mirza Abbas and 11-party alliance candidate Nasiruddin Patwari are contesting.

When asked whether election campaigning with loudspeakers was taking place in the medical zone, Rabiul said that just a short while earlier (at 5:10 pm on Thursday), vehicles with loudspeakers had campaigned for the water-lily-bud symbol, and cars bearing the sheaf-of-paddy symbol also regularly campaign there using loudspeakers.

“No one seems to care about the patients who come here for treatment,” said Rabiul. Another nearby vendor, Obaidullah Mia, echoed the sentiment, saying, “Our ears are burning from the noise.”

Several patients and vendors said loudspeakers were also being used along the roads in front of Dhaka Medical College Hospital and the National Institute of Burn and Plastic Surgery.

Abul Kalam, who had come to buy medicine for his father admitted to the burn institute, said they had travelled from Naogaon after his father was burned while warming himself by a fire during winter.

“Whenever a campaign vehicle passes by, I shut the windows so that my father doesn’t suffer from the loud noise,” he said adding, “There’s no point in campaigning if it causes people suffering.”

Although the election code of conduct prohibits the use of microphones, sound systems and loudspeakers after 8:00 pm, campaigning with high-volume sound systems continued after that time on Thursday in Karwan Bazar, under the Dhaka-12 constituency.

Sound systems were used at the campaign camps of BNP-backed candidate Saiful Haq, independent candidate Saiful Alam, and Jamaat-e-Islami candidate Saiful Alam Khan Milon.

When asked about this, Tahzib Hasan, information officer at the Dhaka divisional returning officer’s office told Prothom Alo, “We take action if we receive complaints from the field. So far, however, we have not received any complaints regarding noise pollution.”

When asked whether there was any system in place to monitor compliance with noise pollution rules, he said, “There is no such monitoring mechanism.”