Editorial
Unelected heads to district councils
A self-serving, undemocratic move
The appointment by an executive order of administrators to 61 zila parishads is another step backward taken by this government. The incumbents are all Awami Leaguers giving a clear signal of partisanship topped up by a policy of appeasement and placing party leaders in strategic positions, an impression that is difficult to shake off.
Materially, the appointments impinge on provisions 59 and 152 of the Constitution which spell out that the zila parishads will have to be constituted by elected persons. According to the Act of 1988 the upazila parishad would have been elected through votes from the elected office-bearers of pourashava, corporation, upazila and union parishads. In 2000 the AL government repealed the Act providing for direct elections to the district councils.
The appointments also violate Justice Shahabuddin's ruling in the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court in 1992. It had ordered elections to all the local bodies including the zila parishads within six months of the gazette notification of the verdict.But for years no electios have been held to the zila parishads.
So the induction of unelected chiefs in the zila parishads can only weaken the local government system even more than the fragile state it has been pushed into since the AL came to power. The upazila parishad chairmen are left disempowered by the binding advisory role of MPs. Now unelected administrators are being placed above the elected upazilas, another blow to them. In addition, the unelected upazila parishads may have preponderance over, or at least a conflicting relationship with, the pourashava chairmen and the deputy commissioners.
Just how could such an important move having serious constitutional and local body implications be made without engaging parliamentary stakeholders and experts in any kind of consultation, defies our comprehension.
Now it is incumbent for the government to give a specific roadmap in consultation with EC for expeditiously arranging elections to all district councils including those for the hill districts. Otherwise, it will go down as just another of the government's hypocritical decisions boding ill for democracy.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel.
Comments