SCC Election : 92 Councilor candidates are Self-Educated

Among the candidates contesting for the general and reserved women councilor posts in the Sylhet City Corporation elections, 92 are ‘self-educated’. Apart from this, 76 candidates could not pass the secondary level. Two candidates are ‘signature wise’. This information is known by going through the affidavits submitted by the candidates to the Returning Officer. On June 21, the EVM voting will be held in this city corporation.

Farooq Mahmud Chowdhury, president of Citizens for Good Governance (Sujan) Sylhet, expressed disappointment at such a picture of the educational qualifications of the candidates. He said, “We have been demanding the Election Commission to make a law specifying the educational qualifications of the candidates for a long time, but it has not worked.” Voters should therefore choose the right person from among the candidates.

According to the affidavits uploaded on the website of the Election Commission, out of 273 candidates contesting for the post of general councilor of Sylhet City Corporation, the educational qualification information of 41 candidates was not found.

Among them, the affidavits of 37 candidates of wards 28, 29 and 30 have not been uploaded. Apart from this, the educational qualification part of four candidates, one each from ward number 4, 10, 14 and 34, was not found in the affidavit. As a result, the educational qualification of 232 candidates has been known through the affidavit.

The affidavits showed that out of 232 candidates for the post of general councilor, 69 are ‘self-educated’ and one is ‘literate’. 51 candidates could not pass the secondary level. 50 graduates and postgraduates.

On the other hand, the analysis of the affidavits of the reserved women councilor candidates revealed that the place of mention of educational qualification in the affidavit of one of the 87 contested candidates is unclear. Of the remaining 86, 23 are ‘self-educated’ and one is ‘literate’. 25 people could not pass the secondary level. 13 graduates and postgraduates passed.