As a new government takes over, Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) pleads for confiscating any ill-gotten fortunes of the newly-elected lawmakers through due legal process by scrutinising their election-affidavit data.
"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," the local chapter of the Berlin-Based anti-graft says watchdog said in a statement Thursday.
Executive Director of TIB Dr Iftekharuzzaman emphasized as an example of credibility of the ruling party's 2024 election manifesto (page 42, pledge 2), any illegal income and assets should be attached following due legal process.
"Therefore, we call for the distribution of some 800 acres of land, illegally owned by the MPs, to the landless," he said in the statement.
As a testament to the 'credibility' of the 2024 election manifesto of Bangladesh Awami League, which retained power for the fourth consecutive term, TIB 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 of the 12th national parliamentary election, released Thursday 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 this parliament exceeds Tk 227 billion, with assets of some 15 MPs surpassing Tk 1.0 billion, it mentions.
The average ownership of movable assets of the MPs had increased 75 per cent from the 10th to the 11th parliament, while from the 2018 election to the 2024 election it has nearly increased 70.41 percent.
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 Bangladesh.
The analysis also reveals that 13 MPs illegally own more than 800 acres of excess land beyond the legal limit, thus violating the highest ceiling for owning land of 100 bigha (3 bigha being equal to 1 acre) as per the Land Reform Act 2023.
On December 26, 2023, TIB launched a report 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.
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