Press release
MPs’ affidavit
Dhaka, 11 January 2024: Based on scrutiny of the election affidavit data and consistent with the election manifesto of the political parties, Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) has called for confiscation of any illegal income and assets of the lawmakers of the 12th National Parliament through due legal process, thus setting an example of accountability.
As a testament to the ‘credibility’ of the 2024 election manifesto of Bangladesh Awami League, which has retained power for the fourth consecutive term, TIB has urged confiscation of some MPs’ illegally-owned more than 800 acres of land for distribution among the landless people through due process.
The second round of TIB's Know Your Candidate (KYC) analysis (https://ti-bangladesh.org/files/kyc-mp-en.pdf) of the 12th national parliamentary election released today through its website reveals that around 85 per cent of the elected MPs are crorepati (based on value of movable assets). The total value of movable assets of some lawmakers in the 12th parliament exceeds Taka 22,700 crore, with assets of some 15 MPs surpassing Taka 100 crore.
The average ownership of movable assets of the MPs has increased by 75 per cent from the 10th to the 11th parliament, while from the 2018 election to the 2024 election it has nearly increased at rate 70.41 per cent.
Significantly, 65 per cent of the newly-elected MPs are businessmen, which is the highest among the last four parliaments. Some 56.83 per cent MPs in the 9th parliament, 57.59 per cent in the 10th, and 61 per cent in the 11th parliament were businessmen, whereas, it was only 18 per cent in the first parliament after the independence of the country.
The analysis also reveals that 13 MPs illegally own more than 800 acres of excess land beyond the legal limit, thus violating the highest limit for owning land of 100 bigha (3 bigha being equal to 1 acre) as per the Land Reform Act 2023.
TIB Executive Director Dr. Iftekharuzzaman emphasized, “As an example of the credibility of the ruling party's 2024 election manifesto (page 42, pledge 2), any illegal income and assets, should be confiscated following the due legal process. Therefore, we call for the distribution of some 800 acres of lands, illegally owned by the MPs, to the landless.”
On 26 December 2023, TIB launched a reported and a dashboard - Know Your Candidate (KYC) - analysing the electoral manifesto and affidavit of all candidates for election from the 9th to the 12th national parliament.
Link: https://www.ti-bangladesh.org/kyc
Media contact:
Sheikh Manjur-E-Alam
Director, Outreach and Communication
Phone: +88024102126770
Email: manjur@ti-bangladesh.org
