Local Government Reform Commission (LGRC) head Prof Tofail Ahmed. Photo: BSS

By Rumana Jaman 

DHAKA, March 24, 2025 (BSS) - Local Government Reform Commission (LGRC) head Prof Tofail Ahmed said they have made reform proposals for restoring and operating the local government institutions on a parliamentary model by bringing provision of indirect voting in mayoral or chairman posts to ensure accountability and maintain balance of power.

“We have recommended in our report that direct voting will be held in councilor or member posts in local government and then mayor or chairman will be elected through votes of elected councilors and members to reduce monopoly, maintain balance of power and ensure accountability,” he told BSS recently.

Asked about the misunderstandings in various places regarding the proposal to change the local government structure, Ahmed, also a local government expert, said some media reports drew his attention where questioned is raised that if the directly voting for chairman and mayoral post is stopped, democracy will get hampered.

But no one questions whether the system in which the mayor and chairman are elected is really working or not, he said, adding that if that is the case, then there is no need for reform and let what was there continue. 

“If that alternative is not right, present another alternative. We have not seen any such alternative so far. Due to chairman or mayoral polls in direct voting, elected members or councilors become unimportant,” said Ahmed.

In that system, chairman or mayor runs the institution alone. Upazila chairman, UNO, Thana and Upazila level engineers and PIO make friends with them and bring money for various projects and divide it among the members or councilors, he said, adding that a system of sharing has been introduced. 

“Union Parishad that will make a plan, debate, discuss, take decisions has been completely removed in the system and chairman becomes bigger than the Parishad as all the power is in the hands of the chairman. That is why we want to bring a balance of power,” he said.

Elaborating on the issue of restoring the organizational structure of local government institutions in a homogeneous manner, Ahmed said now in all local government systems, there are three types of structures--Union Parishad or municipalities, Upazila Parishad, Zilla Parishad and their first task is to bring the structures into a row and make them uniform. 

“The system is that the organizational structure of the local government institution will be divided into two main parts. One is the legislative part, the second is the executive part. In the legislative part, the head will be called the chairman. He will perform duties like the speaker of the National Parliament. And the head of the executive part will be the mayor or chairman,” he said.

He said that the elected councilors or members will vote in the first meeting of the council and elect a chairman. 

“Later, arrangements will be made to elect the mayor or chairman under the chairman's chairmanship. The councilors or members will elect the mayor or chairman through a secret ballot among themselves. And the elected mayor or chairman will take responsibility and form an 'executive council' of three or five members according to the law,” said Ahmed.

He said this is a forum where chairman will be elected by majority vote as this system has been made in such a way that everyone has a job and there will be accountability to each other. 

If there are irregularities, they can express distrust to each other. This is a democratic forum, here everything will be done by majority vote,” he said.

He said what is happening now is that the meeting is held, the chairman conducts that meeting of the justice council and the chairman also implements the decisions made in the meeting as all the powers are in one place.

“We have separated it into 'legislative' function and 'executive' function. Executive work and legislative work have been separated. Here, ordinary members will not do any kind of executive work. Their work will mainly be legislative. They will debate, discuss and make decisions. Then chairman and three-member council will implement these. They will be full-timer. Now there is no such thing as full-timer or part-timer in the local government system. Everyone is getting a salary, but no one has a full-time job. As a result, the people are not getting them,” he said.

He said when elections are held, many steps will be taken among the members and the roles of many will come in different ways and everyone will get some work. 

First thing is that, after the election, the responsibility of the assembly will be to elect a chairman or chairperson and it is like the speaker of the national parliament, his or her job will be to conduct the sessions of the union council and arrange for the standing committee meetings to be held at the right time and properly. 

“To support him or her, there will be a secretary and an employee under him. Their job will be to conduct the council meetings on time, call the meetings, set the agenda and that agenda must be discussed and fixed with the chairman. He or she will conduct the meetings. There will be open discussions in the meeting, decisions will be made. These decisions will go to the chairman. In this way, coordination will come in the work.”

He said now the Election Commission does not have the power to hold local government elections. The constitution did not give it that power. 

“ We want the power to hold local elections to be constitutionally given to the Election Commission by amending the constitution. In this, the Election Commission will be able to fix the election schedule itself. They will be able to work independently,” he said.