STAFF CORRESPONDENT

Nearly two-thirds of the nominees for reserved women’s seats are both highly educated and millionaires, said Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) in a statement yesterday.

Around 65 percent of the candidates declared multimillionaire status, while more than 63 percent reported postgraduate or higher qualifications in their affidavits, it said.

TIB presented this picture through an analysis of the affidavit information of 49 nominated candidates for the reserved women’s seats in the 13th National Parliament submitted to the Election Commission.

Candidates for reserved women’s seats are significantly ahead of directly elected members of parliament in terms of educational qualifications, said the anti-graft watchdog.

In these seats, 63.3 percent of candidates hold postgraduate or higher degrees, whereas among elected MPs, this rate is 50.7 percent.

Overall, 52.63 percent of all members hold postgraduate or higher degrees, including directly elected and reserved women’s seat members.

Among the reserved women’s seat candidates, 27 percent are graduates and 4.1 percent have passed higher secondary education. The rate of self-educated candidates is 4.1 percent and secondary school graduates account for 2.1 percent.

According to the analysis, out of 49 candidates, 32 (65.31 percent) are multi-millionaires based on the total value of movable and immovable assets, while 25 are multimillionaires based on movable assets and 14 based on immovable assets.

A party-wise analysis shows that among BNP’s 36 The

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