Bangladesh News

The Election Commission (EC) has asked the caretaker government to allocate over Tk 570 crore in the budget for fiscal 2008-09 for holding the elections to parliament and local government bodies.

Of the amount, Tk 250 crore was sought for holding the stalled ninth parliamentary election, Tk 100.50 crore for elections to upazila parishads, Tk 200.50 crore for union parishads, Tk 12 crore for city corporations and Tk 2.10 crore for polls to municipalities, sources said giving the main features of polls expenditures.

In addition to this, the EC has sought Tk 159.73 crore to meet its other expenditures from central to field level.

The EC Secretariat recently sent the proposals for budgetary allocations to Finance Division of the finance ministry, which is now working on the next budget.

Senior officials of the EC Secretariat will also meet Finance Division officials in to explain the need for the funds.

According to the EC’s electoral roadmap announced on July 15 last year, parliamentary election will be held by December and long overdue polls to upazila parishads in November-December this year.

Elections to five of the six city corporations and many of the municipalities will be held starting from April and ending before the parliamentary polls.

According to the electoral roadmap, polls to over 4,000 union parishads were supposed to be held this year but the EC later decided not to hold the polls as it might retard preparation for parliamentary polls.

But the EC will have to hold polls to the union parishads immediately after the parliamentary election as their tenure will expire by next month.

The estimated expenditure for holding the stalled parliamentary election exceeds that for any previous election.

EC officials attributed this mainly to price hike of materials, devaluation of money, introduction of transparent ballot boxes, increased number of voters and polling stations and more manpower engaged in the polls process.

A significant amount of the proposed funds will be spent for security forces to ensure law and order ahead of and after the election.

This is for the first time, the EC Secretariat is going to have a budget with power to spend funds as per its needs, without seeking approval from the finance ministry.

The Council of Advisers has already approved an ordinance to free the EC Secretariat from the control of the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), and give it financial autonomy.

The EC Secretariat is now implementing a project titled ” Preparation of the voter list with photographs and facilitating the issuance of national identity cards” costing Tk 424 crore. Of the amount, various donor agencies and countries contributed Tk 274 crore and the government allocated the rest.

So, the next parliamentary election is set to involve the largest ever polls expenditure, which may be over Tk 600 crore including the cost of preparing the voter list, EC officials said.

Meanwhile, the EC has said the number of voters will be around eight 8 crore and that of polling stations will not exceed 30,000.

EXPENDITURES FOR PREVIOUIS POLLS
According to documents available from the EC Secretariat, the expenditure for holding the first parliamentary election in 1973 was Tk 81.86 lakh, the number of voters was 3.52 crore and that of polling stations 1,584.

The expenditure was Tk 5.60 crore for the second parliamentary election held in 1979 with voters numbering 3.87 crore and polling stations 21,905. For the third parliamentary election in 1986, the expenditure was Tk 5.26 crore, with 4.78 crore voters and 23, 279 polling stations. In the fourth parliamentary election held in 1988, the expenditure was Tk 5.16 crore with the number of voters being 4.98 crore and polling stations 22, 393.

Expenditure for the fifth parliamentary election in 1991 was Tk 25.56 crore while the number of voters was 6.20 crore and that of polling stations 24, 154. The sixth parliamentary election held on February 15, 1996 cost Tk 65 crore and the number of voters was 5.61 crore.

The seventh parliamentary election held on June 12, 1996, cost Tk 71 crore, with the number of voters being 5.67 crore and polling stations 25, 952. Expenditure for the eighth parliamentary polls held on October 1, 2001 was TK 95 crore and the number of voters was 7.49 crore and that of polling stations 29, 978.

The EC Secretariat had spent around Tk 146 crore for holding the ninth parliamentary election in January last year but the polls could not be held due to political turmoil that forced the president to declare the state of emergency. The number of voters was 9.30 crore and that of polling stations was around 30,000 for the stalled polls.

The expenditures for the previous parliamentary polls have been calculated excluding the cost for preparing voters lists.