The New Nation - Internet Edition

ACCORDING to credible media reports, many candidates who have been cleared by the Election Commission (EC) for contesting the upcoming municipal polls are accused in criminal cases. The added, amended or newly drawn up rules of the EC related to the eligibility of candidates for elections at any level, have not created any bars for disqualifying such candidates. This may have been due to the practice in the past that only accusation in criminal cases do not make a person a criminal and unfit for holding an elected public position. Only upon conviction in a case, a person may become ineligible.

But it is high time that EC addresses this issue and suggests suitable change in the laws to make the same unambiguous. Would it be good to debar people accused or convicted in criminal cases from election? As it is, chances of most of them becoming convicted in varying degrees are likely. Therefore, it should be prudent to create an uniform standard and keep out persons of dubious background from standing in election for the public good. Setting such a standard will be all the more necessary to keep those accused for corruption or other crimes from contesting the parliamentary elections.

Such people can be expected to try everything to drag the legal process so that their convictions in different cases remain unsettled at the time of submitting nominations for contesting the parliamentary election and to utilise the existing rule that none can be barred from contesting before their conviction. There may be questions as to whether this would be fair on the voters who have been promised that the coming national elections would give a choice of clean candidates who have not been tainted by backgrounds or allegations of crime or corruption? But the standards should be uniform.