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Electing honest candidates

27 March 2006, 18:00 PM
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
By Syed Moniuruzzaman Karlstad University, Sweden
27 March 2006, 18:00 PM
We have appreciated so much what you have done for the country's good and we stand beside you on the campaign for 'electing honest and competent candidates' in the next general election. We have also delightfully observed that citizens from different sectors have gathered in one place to discuss the issue of candidates, corruption and violence in the general elections. I have gone through all the newspaper reports and I think something was missing in the seminar or less discussed. That is Election Budget. Most often candidates have big budgets and when they are elected they try to recover the money during their parliament membership period (I think you are also concerned about it). Here we have experienced the starting point of country's corruption. For example, if the election budget rises up to 5 crore (50 million), the candidate has to find a way to earn at least Tk 8,33,333/- (some 8 lakh ) per month as election cost with an additional amount for the next election. The chain starts here, from the election process, and goes through the governmental and societal organisations and comes back again to the election process.

I know the Election Commission has certain rules on election budget, but the main problem is, it does not have proper control over such budget. Here you have to work more to develop a kind of control where every candidate is restricted to follow the election budget rule. Campaign has impact on social development, but not always effective for solving all the problems. Control can set a boundary to follow certain rules and regulations. The representatives from political parties, Election Commission, and civil society could be involved in the Control. Seminars and seminar papers are good to be in the media but not always effective in all the fields, especially when it comes to politics in Bangladesh. To reach your goal of electing honest and competent candidates, you have to focus on Election Budget.

Finally, like many of you, we also want to see our country's prosperity where we can enjoy democracy, where we will have chance to fight poverty and social inequalities and so on.

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