Dhaka: The expenditure for the upcoming fifth Upazila Parishad election has been estimated at 677 crore taka. This expenditure is almost double the expenditure for the fourth Upazila election. The election expenditure will be met from the bulk allocation.
Election Commission (EC) Secretary Helaluddin Ahmed has already said that the schedule will be announced in February and the voting for about 500 Upazila Parishads will start in five phases from the first week of March. In this case, the Election Commission will conduct voting in all centers of Sadar Upazilas using Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs). Voting will be held later in Upazilas whose terms will expire later.
According to the budget wing of the Election Commission, the Election Commission spent Tk 3.35 billion on the five-phase voting in the fourth Upazila Parishad election in 2014. Of this, Tk 1.5 billion was spent on the election management sector and Tk 1.85 billion on law and order.
Officials from the EC's budget wing said that the total allocation for the fourth upazila elections was Tk 400 crore. A total of Tk 335 crore had to be spent on the five-phase elections. Tk 150 crore was spent on the election management sector. In this sector, Tk 100 crore had to be paid for the allowances of polling officers and Tk 50 crore had to be paid for the allowances of returning officers, assistant returning officers, presiding officers, polling officers and magistrates.
Among the law enforcement forces in the election, 800 million taka was given to the Ansar force, 630 million taka to the police-RAB, 240 million taka to the armed forces, and 180 million taka to the BGB.
At that time, voting was held in a total of 459 upazilas out of the country's 487 upazilas in five phases. Voting in the remaining upazilas took place at the end of the term. In total, about 3.5 billion taka was spent.
Senior Assistant Secretary of the EC's Budget Branch, Mohammad Enamul Haque, said that this time, an allocation of Tk 677 crore has been made for the Fifth Upazila Parishad. Out of this allocation, around Tk 225 crore will be spent on the election management sector. The rest will be spent on maintaining law and order. The expenditure allocation has also been kept higher as the prices of everything have increased compared to before.
Officials of the EC's printing branch said that a large part of the upazila elections will be filled with the election materials of the 11th National Parliament. Therefore, there will be some savings in this sector. A large expenditure on election materials will be for ballot papers and various printing. In addition, seals, ropes, bags, etc. will also have to be purchased new.
On January 22, 2009, elections were held simultaneously in 481 upazilas. At that time, about 133 crore taka was spent. Of this, 64 crore 27 lakh 12 thousand taka was spent on conducting the elections and 66 crore 97 lakh 41 thousand taka on law and order. Accordingly, the rate of expenditure on maintaining law and order is gradually increasing over time compared to the expenditure on conducting the elections.
Meanwhile, it is believed that the total cost of conducting large-scale voting using EVMs will increase significantly. Because, in this case, 21,000 EVMs will be required for about 7,000 polling stations and another 21,000 as backup, that is, about 42,000 EVMs. Each EVM is being purchased for 2 lakh 10 thousand taka. Added to this is the cost of operating the EVMs. In total, about 100 crore taka will be spent just for voting using these machines.
