| Editorial Daily Star 9/7/08 Men of dubious reputation back in politics? City, municipal polls will be a test case for EC THE Election Commission is deeply worried about the way things are going in the run-up to the corporation and municipal polls. That is only natural, given that a number of those who have submitted nomination papers are individuals with a questionable past. And that is what the EC, reconstituted following the imposition of a state of emergency last year, was supposed to avoid. Its job, one it went into with gusto, was to clear the Augean stables of the accumulated mess of years and so make it possible for democracy to take new roots. That was the ideal before it. It still is. The difficulty is that despite all the scrutiny it has so far engaged in regarding candidates for the upcoming polls, it does not seem to have been able to prevent a good number of old faces, with unsavoury reputations to boot, from entering the electoral fray.
The Election Commission, as everyone is aware, has come forward with some sweeping electoral reforms as well as a code of conduct regarding campaigning. Naturally, therefore, it was expected that the class of people who could not be trusted to hold positions of public responsibility owing to their past would be kept at bay. Now, if those very people are coming back into the limelight, one can only question the methods the EC adopted, or the application of them, as it went about doing its job. The EC, and with it a lot of other people, are quite disappointed that those with alleged criminal records now in the running for the upcoming corporation and municipal polls have not yet been sentenced. That makes it possible for these individuals to take part in the elections. The simple legal explanation is that unless a person is sentenced or convicted, in other words proved guilty, he cannot be dissuaded from participating in election-related politics. The dilemma for the EC as also for the country is thus patent. What is equally clear is that the measures taken so far by the EC to prevent such an infiltration of the electoral system do not appear to have been adequate or foolproof.
At this stage, therefore, it would be foolhardy to suggest that the EC adopt tougher measures in scrutinising nomination papers. The redeeming bit here is that a fairly good number of candidates have been barred from the polls on technical grounds. As for those who are in it, despite the charges against them and until they are convicted, the best hope lies in carrying out more thorough investigations into their past. With global instances of post-election disqualification before us, we can hope that individuals with criminal records will be phased out of politics. Let the upcoming polls be a test case for the EC in what it has done and how much more it ought to have done. | |