Cumilla 10 constituency, 90 kilometers in size, consists of Nangalkot, Sadar South and Lalmai upazila. Even though this constituency has more than 5 lac voters, its boundary is yet to be fixed and legal cases were also filed regarding the matter.
Not only Cumilla 10 constituencies, same complexity are also attached to Sunamganj 10, formed of three upazilas— Dharmapasha, Tahirpur and Jamalgang, Sylhet 3, formed of South Surma, Fenchuganj and Balaganj upazila. Again, Thakurgaon -1 upazila is formed only of Thakurgaon Sadar, but Ranishankail upazila under the same district has been divided and added to Thakurgaon 2 and Thaugaon 3 constituencies.
There’re 20 parliamentary seats in Dhaka. According to the population census, the total population of Dhaka in 2011 was 2 crore 20 lac, while it has been increased to 1 crore 47 lac in the census of 2021. At present, each Dhaka constituency has on an average a population of 735,000. Nonetheless, Jhalkathi, the district at the southern part of the country, has only 2 constituencies with a population of 661,000. That means, it has, on an average, population of 330,000 per constituency.
In analyses, it has been discovered that according to the existing boundary, there’s no balance of the number of voters in 150 constituencies. It’s seen that upazilas are divided and added to different constituencies as there’s no regional wholeness in 37 constituencies. Hence, the people are becoming the victim of negligence due to the presence of more than one Member of Parliament in the same upazila.
Prior to the last national election, citizens from various background appeal for or against the change of maximum constituencies of 64 districts. Among the applicants, there’re mass people to Member of MPs. Nonetheless, last election commission changed the boundaries of 25 constituencies partly belonged to 12 districts.
According to the analysts, the solution to the boundary crisis of parliamentary constituencies hasn’t made possible for a long time. The last election commission led by EC Huda left the EC without solving the issue. They didn’t take into account the huge complaints submitted to them.
The demand of changing the structure of the constituencies is an issue existing for long time as still the boundaries of many constituencies are 90 kilometer, in addition to the existence of one constituency in three or four upazilas. Moreover, many constituencies contain only one upazila with small number of voters.
The local government experts thinks 150 constituencies have become imbalanced since the election commission has given more emphasize on administrative indivisibility. The difference of population among some constituencies is more than 25%. Though, there were change initiated in 2008, but the boundary of the constituencies hadn’t changed that much later on.
Meanwhile, in the new law regarding re-fixing the boundaries of parliamentary constituencies, there’s provision of keeping the previous boundaries intact. Hence, it’s uncertain now whether the complexities regarding boundaries of parliamentary seats will be solved or not.
The local government experts said, if the complexities are not removed before next national election, then there could be many problems regarding it. If these complexities aren’t removed the people might be deprived of the development allocation of government due to the difference in constituency-based population.
EC staffs said, in the current boundary system, there’s no balance of voters in 150 constituencies. Cumilla and Mymenshingh, both have 11 parliamentary seats, while their populations are 5,387,000 and 5,100,000. In the same way, Tangail’s 8 constituencies have 3,900,000, Gazipur’s 5 constituencies have 5,263,000 and Chuadanga’s two constituencies have 1,200,000 people.
In addition, in the current boundary system, no regional indivisibility has been kept in 37 constituencies. Here, one parliamentary constituency is formed by adding one or more upazilas or unions to others.’ So, according to the complaints, the residents of these unions got victim of negligence of local MPs. The complaints heard across these constituencies: Shirajganj 1 and 2, Pabna 1 and 2, Chuadanga 1 and 2, Jhinaidah 2 and 4, Jashore 3 and 4, Narail 1 and 2, Khulna 3 and 4, Satkhira 3 and 4, Manikganj 2 and 3, Dhaka 2 and 19, Gazipur 2 and 5, Narshingdi 1 and 2, Faridpur 4, Gopalganj 2 and 5, Madaripur 2 and 3, Noakhali 1 and 2, Chattogram 7, 14 and 115, Thakurgaon 2 and 3.
The boundary gazette of 1995 remained intact during the election of 2011. But, there’re many changes in 133 constituencies in 1984, 1991 and 2008. In 10th parliament, small changes have been initiated in 50 constituencies by following six law.
Election commissioner Md Alamgir told, We’re doing some elementary works as only the primary census report has been published. The commission will fix their procedure after the final report got published.
@This report appeared on the printed and online version of Bangladesh Pratidin on Saturday (September 3) and has been rewritten in English by Lutful Hoque
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