In a first, third gender candidates to contest polls in Bangladesh

Bangladesh will see transgender candidates contest democratic elections for the first time this year on 30 December during the Municipal Elections.[caption id="attachment_1422357" align="alignleft" width="380"] Representative Image. Reuters[/caption]The candidates are identified as Diti and Seema, according to a report in the Daily-Sun.According to the report, Diti is standing for elections not only to help the third-gender people get their rights, but also other underprivileged  and poor people in her community.“You have to keep in mind that no one will give you your rights, you will have to achieve them. I became a candidate in order to ensure our rights. If I win, I will try my best to ensure the rights of the transgender people. I will always be by the side of the poor and the deprived,” she said to the Dhaka Tribune.This is not the first time news of a third gender person contesting elections has come to light. In January this year, a transgender candidate won a mayoral election in Chhattisgarh’s Raigarh Municipal Corporation.Madhu Kinnar defeated her opposition by 4,357 votes on 4 January, beating the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) Mahaveer Guruji to become mayor of Raigarh, reports The Independent.Transgenders were given voting rights in Bangladesh in December 2009. According to a survey by the Ministry of Social Welfare, Bangladesh has a transgender population of around 10,000. Others put the figure higher, at somewhere between 30,000 and 150,000.