Published : 07 Aug 2026, 06:52 AM
Updated : 08 Sep 2026, 09:30 AM
Classrooms, Canvassing, and Electoral Claims
State benefits, dual roles: The EC insists state-funded MPO teachers must resign before running to prevent holding dual posts
Discriminatory ban allegations: Jamaat claims barring teachers from local polls violates citizens' equal constitutional rights.
Political and legal feuds: Teachers threaten legal fights over lost rights amid claims of Jamaat’s political influence.
A proposed change to Bangladesh’s local election laws has opened an unlikely new fault line over a deceptively simple question: whether teachers whose salaries are partly supported by the state should be allowed to run for local office.
The Election Commission (EC) wants to shut that door. Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, the parliamentary opposition, is pushing back.
MPO teachers and employees are also protesting, arguing that a right exercised for years should not suddenly disappear.
Under the existing system, MPO teachers can contest in local elections. The EC now wants amendments across all tiers of local government law to exclude them from the polls.
Why Jamaat is Opposing the Move
Jamaat met the EC on Jul 29, arguing that barring MPO teachers would deprive several hundred thousand people at more than 30,000 institutions of an electoral right.
Jamaat Secretary General Mia Golam Porwar called the proposal “discriminatory”, asking: “MPO teachers are not barred from contesting in parliamentary elections, so why should they be barred from local elections?”
Assistant Secretary General Ahsanul Mahboob Zubair said, “They are citizens with constitutional rights. If they can become members of parliament, why can’t they serve in local government? You cannot have two laws in one country.”
He also warned that the restriction could face a legal challenge.
The political stakes are harder to ignore. A BNP Standing Committee member said there were questions within the ruling party about MPO teachers, including a “strong” tendency among them to follow Jamaat’s politics.
Porwar dismissed the suggestion: “They are free to think so. There is no tax on what people think. We have our own thoughts too.”
Teachers Say the Ban Would Be Unfair
Delawar Hossain Azizi, member secretary of a coalition seeking nationalisation of MPO institutions, said they want to retain the right to contest.
“If the government nationalises our institutions and our jobs, then we will not object to being treated as government employees and barred from elections,” he said.
Why EC Wants the Change
Election Commissioner Abdur Rahmanel Masud said full-time MPO teachers receive state benefits and should not simultaneously hold elected posts such as chairman or mayor.
“We have already decided that MPO teachers will not be allowed to contest. They will have to resign before contesting once the law is amended,” he said.
Former EC deputy secretary Mihir Sarwar Morshed said MPO teachers were historically barred from local elections. The opening came after court orders during the Awami League era, following legal challenges to a 2012 EC circular that had prohibited their participation.
The EC now says a specific legal provision is needed to restore the restriction. Jamaat says that change would create discrimination -- and potentially another legal battle.
