The Election Commission (EC) has fixed the security deposit for Union Parishad (UP) chairman candidates at Tk25,000 and for members at T 5,000.
The EC has also set the maximum election expenditure at Tk10 lakh for chairman candidates and Tk2 lakh for members.
The provisions were incorporated into the Union Parishad (Election Conduct) Rules, 2026, which were published in a gazette notification today.
Candidates will have to deposit the security amount through treasury challan, pay order or bank draft.
The deposit will be refunded if a candidate secures at least 15 percent of the votes cast. Otherwise, it will be forfeited in favour of the government.
A chairman candidate will have to make payments by cheque for any election-related expenditure of Tk 20,000 or more under any head.
Under amended Rule 80(a), a person who threatens, intimidates, assaults or obstructs election officials, authorised media representatives or observers, or prevents voters from going to polling stations or candidates from submitting or withdrawing nomination papers by force, may face up to two years’ imprisonment, a fine of up to Tk 10,000, or both.
The amended rules also provide for re-election in case of a tie. If two or more candidates receive an equal number of the highest votes, the EC will direct the returning officer to hold a re-poll among those candidates.
Regarding the suspension of results and ordering of re-polls, the rules empower the EC to suspend the result of any polling station if it finds that voting was seriously affected by force, intimidation, manipulation or other malpractice.
Following an inquiry, the EC may publish the result if it considers it justified, or cancel the election at the affected polling station and order a re-poll.
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