The decision was taken at the second meeting of the committee yesterday at the CPD (Centre for Policy Dialogue) dialogue room.

The committee reviewed the decisions of its previous meeting and prepared an outline of the vision paper.

It also discussed other related activities including the regional dialogues in Mymensingh on April 29, Jessore on May 13 and Comilla on May 20.

To promote competent candidates, the citizens group will take a number of measures to put pressure on the Election Commission to fully implement High Court directives regarding the disclosure of relevant information by the candidates, their asset and loan status, sources of income and criminal records, if any.

The committee thinks the candidates should also disclose their tax payment records and records on change of their political affiliation.

The citizens' committee is of the opinion that the RPO (Representation of the People Order) 1972 needs to be amended so that if candidate gives 'misdeclaration' on the required information, his or her seat can be subsequently vacated after the election.

The committee discussed the approach and outline of the vision paper and decided to identify the prerequisite for realisation of an optimistic development possibilities in Bangladesh by 2020-21.

The next meeting of the citizens' group will be held on April 30.

Prof Rehman Sobhan, CPD chairman and convenor of the committee, chaired the meeting. It was attended by Dr Anisuzzaman, Samson H Chowdhury, Syed Manzur Elahi, Angela Gomes, M Mujibul Huq, Prof Mohammad Zafar Iqbal, Dr Mahmuda Islam, Mahmudul Islam, Laila Rahman Kabir, Advocate Sultana Kamal, M Hafizuddin Khan, Prof Wahiduddin Mahmud, Latifur Rahman, Prof Abdullah Abu Sayeed, ASM Shajahan and M Syeduzzaman.

Dr Debapriya Bhattacharya, CPD executive director, attended the meeting as member-secretary of the committee

Mahfuz Anam, editor and publisher of The Daily Star, was present on invitation.