There is no educational qualification requirement for contesting local government elections, Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives state minister Mir Shahe Alam said on Sunday.

He made the remarks while talking to reporters at the Secretariat after Swiss ambassador to Bangladesh Reto Renggli paid a courtesy call on Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives minister Abdul Moyeen Khan. State minister Mir Shahe Alam was also present.

Amid recent discussions over eligibility for local government elections, the state minister said none of the five laws governing local government elections required candidates to have any educational qualification.

‘There is no educational qualification requirement for contesting the posts of union parishad member and chairman, upazila chairman and vice-chairman, zila parishad chairman, municipality mayor and councillor, or city corporation mayor and councillor,’ he said.

Regarding MPO-listed teachers, Shahe Alam said the Local Government Act clearly stated that a person would be disqualified from contesting if they held a full-time paid position under the republic, a local government body or any other local authority.

‘The Education Ministry has clarified this in Rules 11.17(a) and 11.17(b) of the Non-Government Educational Institutions (School and College) Manpower Structure and MPO Policy 2025. It says that an MPO-listed teacher or employee cannot simultaneously hold more than one post or job or any financially remunerative position,’ he said.

‘The ministry makes the law, while the Election Commission formulates the election rules and determines the eligibility and disqualification of candidates,’ he added.

The Election Commission would consider the relevant law, the Education Ministry’s policy and other applicable provisions before deciding whether MPO-listed teachers could contest local government elections, Shahe Alam said.