Bangladesh

The Bangladeshi experiment in democratic decentralisation was the creation of H. M. Ershad who had seized power in a military coup in 1982. His government created new elected councils at the sub-district (upazila or thana) level (with an average population of 245,000), and linked them to long-standing elected councils at the Union level much closer to the grassroots (with an average population of 20,000). There are 495 sub-districts and 4,401 Unions in Bangladesh. This system operated from 1985 until it was disbanded in 1991 after the fall of Ershad.