Candidates filing false and incomplete information
With the High Court directing the Election Commission to investigate and take legal action against candidates furnishing false information or concealing facts in their affidavits submitted with their nomination papers for city corporation and municipality elections, the EC is left with no alternative but to comply with the HC ruling on an expeditious basis. Only four days are left to debar such candidates, who prove guilty on this count, from the elections, due on August 4. An investigative report in Prothom Alo had revealed that out of 46 mayoral candidates 12 concealed facts about themselves apart from other newspaper reports on candidates with questionable credentials trying to stage a comeback.
The EC gives us to understand now that its officials are out at various constituencies scrutinising the affidavits and on their reporting back to the commission will the latter act against the offender. But while we take this belated assurance for what it is worth we cannot help but share the public perception that there has been indecisiveness on the part of the Election Commission not to have cancelled defective candidatures earlier on. More so because the Supreme Court had directed the Election Commission to collect and publish personal information of prospective candidates to help voters make informed choices. Furthermore, the new laws for city corporation and municipal polls required cancellation of candidature of a contestant failing to furnish complete information in seven specified categories.
It's not enough to express frustrations over the malpractice; the law is there and now the directive of the HC robustly underpinning the Supreme Court ruling is also there to be acted upon. Why should the commission have failed to act so far when in fulfilment of a universal public demand for providing the voters with ready access to information about the credentials or otherwise of the candidates seeking public office, the relevant law was enacted. The changeover on 1/11 was all about reforming the way through which many a public representative got elected by default. All concerned must put their act together to set the right precedent for the upcoming national elections.
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