Upazila polls cost to hit new high

Spending on the ongoing fourth Upazila elections is going to exceed the combined expenses of the previous local government body polls and the last parliamentary elections.

Voting is being held in six phases for the first time in Bangladesh’s history.

Four rounds of voting so far and the next phase, slated for Mar 31, together will cost around Tk 3.5 billion, which is two and a half times the cost of third Upazila elections held five years back.

According to the Election Commission’s budget wing, polls management will account for Tk 1.45 billion and law and order arrangements Tk 1.97 billion of the total expenses of the staggered balloting.

Voting is being held at polling centres where elections were suspended in the previous phases due to major violence and irregularities.

The EC plans to hold the last leg of balloting in the first week of May.

It estimates the expenditure of voting at the suspended centres and the sixth phase ballot will tally the total expenses to three times the cost of third Upazila elections.

EC Deputy Secretary (budget) Shajahan Khan attributed the rise in expenditure to holding of the elections in six phases, increases in allowances of election officials and prices of voting materials.

The Upazila polls began on Feb 19. Voting at 385 of 487 Upazilas has been held in the first four rounds and the fifth phase at 74 bodies will be held on Mar 31.

Khan said election expenses were being disbursed in phases before adding that the total expenditure of the polls might reach Tk 3.5 billion.

Tk 1.33 billion was spent in the third Upazila Parishad polls held on Jan 22, 2009.

Law Minister Anisul Huq told Parliament recently that the 10th national elections conducted on Jan 5 this year cost over Tk 2.64 billion.