He also presented a formula for the movement to put pressure on the major political parties for nominating competent candidates.

Speaking at the Citizen Dialogue for Election 2007 yesterday at Dhaka Hotel Sheraton, he detailed his 12-point formula that includes nominating symbolic candidates in the constituencies.

"We have to take preparations from now on for resisting corrupt and incompetent people from entering the next parliament," he said.

"If the corrupt and incompetent candidates get the chance to enter the next parliament, the level of corruption will reach such a stage that violence and unrest in the society will go beyond control."

He observed that the corrupt and incompetent ones could be defeated if all the citizens become aware. He urged the Anti-Corruption Commission to prepare a guideline for the Election Commission (EC) to be followed for preventing the corrupt from being candidates.

"Keeping only loan defaulters out of the election is not enough; rather we should also be aware of the people who are involved in various corruption."

In his formula, Yunus suggested the launch of a citizens' movement in the name of "honest candidate movement" or "competent candidate movement".

The movement will have a governing committee and an executive body for conducting day-to-day affairs. The Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) might work as its secretariat.

The movement will form a central nomination committee and declare in one month a panel of candidates comprising at least one man and one woman for every constituency.

The number of candidates will be increased gradually. The autobiography of the candidates will come out in the newspapers and other media. They will also give interviews before the media to project their main goal.

The candidates will not campaign for election; rather they will campaign for ensuring the defeat of the corrupt and incompetent candidates.

The candidates of the movement will withdraw their candidature if political parties nominate competent candidates in their constituencies.

On the other hand, four candidates of the citizens' movement will contest in the election in those constituencies where the political parties fail to nominate competent candidates.

The group of candidates will have an election symbol from the EC, while only one candidate will contest in the election who gets the symbol. The other candidates will support him/her and work in favour of him/her.

Civil society members comprising leading politicians, economists, educationists, and social thinkers while speaking at the dialogue felt the necessity for putting pressure on political parties to nominate honest and competent people.

The situation might be changed if the major political parties are pressurised for nominating honest, dedicated and ideal people, they observed.

They said there is no alternative to democratic rule by the elected representatives for realising development potential of Bangladesh. They believe the positive outcome of democracy and development initiated in the 90's could be accelerated further in the current decade.