Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) on Thursday said the Election Commission (EC) remains constrained by business-driven political interests and identified serious transparency gaps in affidavits submitted by candidates contesting the 13th national parliamentary election.
Speaking at a press conference at TIB office, Executive Director Iftekharuzzaman presented the findings of a report titled Candidate Profiles in Electoral Affidavits 2026.
He said that despite reform initiatives in election laws, Election Commission has remained “hostage to business-based politics.”
Questioning the credibility of information disclosed by candidates, Iftekharuzzaman said 21 candidates have declared dual citizenship and claimed to have renounced foreign nationality.
However, TIB has information suggesting that two of them continue to hold British citizenship.
He further alleged that TIB has credible information linking a declared dependent of one candidate to a house purchased in the United Kingdom in 2013 for £1.4 million; equivalent to Tk210 crore, which was not mentioned in the candidate’s affidavit.
According to TIB, the property was acquired through a shell company, with ownership registered in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
In another instance, he said, a candidate who declared no overseas assets was found to own a flat in Dubai registered in his wife’s name.
The TIB executive director also noted a significant rise in candidates from Islamic political parties in the current election, accounting for more than 36 percent of total contestants; the highest share in the last five parliamentary elections.
At the same time, women’s participation has again fallen short of the stipulated 5 percent target.
Women make up only 4.2 percent of candidates, or 80 individuals, in the current election, he said, citing economic and religious factors as major barriers to greater female representation.
On financial disclosures, Iftekharuzzaman said about 25.5 percent of candidates in the 13th parliamentary election have loans or other financial liabilities. The combined amount of liabilities stands at Tk18,868.52 crore.
Although the proportion of indebted candidates is the lowest among the last five elections, the total volume of liabilities is the highest, with bank loans alone amounting to Tk17,471.67 crore, the report said.
SH
