Editorial
Info about election candidates
We fully endorse EC's move
The Election Commission is seeking an early disposal of the appeal pending at the Supreme Court on the High Court order empowering the commission to collect and disseminate personal information about the MP candidates in the next parliamentary elections.
The commission's move is quite in keeping with the popular expectations that MP candidates' profiles be subjected to scrutiny by voters as part of the plan to weed out the corrupt elements from the race. The need for such an exercise can hardly be overemphasised in our context marked by increasing demand for honest and competent candidates. Without question, the crisis that parliamentary democracy had to pass through in the last 15 years was attributable, to a great extent, to the fact that the MPs could not live up to the voters' expectations. Rather, people tend to believe that politicians of dubious backgrounds managed to sneak through the electoral process because voters didn't have information about the candidates for making informed choices. The result has been disastrous in that professional goons and touts have established themselves in politics.
Mandatory submission of personal information about the candidates will certainly put them in full public glare. This is the first vital step towards electing honest and capable people -- which is a popular demand endorsed by all and sundry.
We should not be oblivious of the huge advantage that an honest candidate with good track-record in social and financial terms will have over others if criminals and thugs are barred from entering the fray.
Lack of transparency and the tendency to compromise on issues pertaining to moral uprightness have degenerated politics to its present level. So, it is time that virtues like honesty and wisdom were taken into consideration by voters. It is obvious that the EC's move to collect personal information about the candidates and let people know about them is going to be step in favour of the more deserving fellows. We hope the matter will be resolved soon at the Supreme Court.
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