In this context, the Election Commission is thinking of relaxing the law regarding mandatory submission of signatures of 250 voters for potential independent candidates for the posts of President and Vice President, a report by Prothom Alo said. The Election Commission’s committee on amendments in laws is working on a draft to introduce some amendments in the Upazila Parishad election rules and code of conduct. Apart from relaxing the provision for independent candidates, there is a provision in the draft to increase the amount of security deposit and increase the percentage of votes received for security of security deposit.
The concerned committee of the EC has also discussed the issue of increasing the security deposit from the existing Tk 10,000 to Tk 200,000 for the posts of Chairman and Vice Chairman and increasing it from the existing Tk 5,000 to Tk 50,000 for the post of women. Vice President.
Regardless of their party identity or no identity for that matter, all candidates will be considered independent as the election will not be held along party lines. In fact, until amendments to the Local Government Elections Act were introduced in 2015, all local government elections were held in a non-partisan manner.