Editorial
Providing false, incomplete information to EC
Don't let them off the hook!
IT is obvious that the Election Commission is in a state of helplessness. That happens to be so because a number of candidates for the city corporation and municipal elections are taking part in the polls despite their non-compliance with mandatory provisions regarding furnishing some specific personal information to the EC. The non-compliance is of two sorts. The first relates to their submission of false information about themselves in the affidavit, while the second concerns incomplete information they have supplied to the EC. It is quite understandable, therefore, that as election day approaches (and that is tomorrow), the EC will be perturbed without in any way being able to do anything at this late stage to prevent such people from taking part in the elections.
One of the election commissioners has, however, sought to reassure the country on the issue. He has made it clear that even if such candidates emerge victorious at the voting, they will subsequently be disqualified, if found guilty of wrongdoing, through a full investigation. That may sound like a good idea, except that there is a very real chance that attempts to take action against them might run into legal complications. And once that happens, there might arise the possibility of long drawn-out legal proceedings and, consequently, a dysfunction in the corporations as well as municipalities. But, then again, the need to ensure that a smooth system is at work in the corporations and municipalities is an absolute one and the whole process of investigations into instances of wrongdoing must be gone through. We must also sound the caveat, though, that the post-election inquiries the Election Commission plans should include not only those who will have won the election but also those who will have lost it. Since the nature of the offence is the same, everyone who commits it must be penalised. Meanwhile, as the polls get under way, we suggest that apart from NGOs there be all the government officials and their staff at the local level, and specifically election officials, to find out exactly where and how candidates to the city corporation and municipal elections have defaulted in providing information to the EC.
Let the drawbacks relating to the upcoming elections be a lesson for the EC as it prepares to hold general elections at the end of the year. The elections to the four city corporations and nine municipalities ought to have set a healthy precedent for the future. That does not appear to have been the case, which only reinforces the argument that much more substantive work needs to come into the planned elections for a new parliament. Since the national objective is the inauguration of a transparent, effective and purposeful democracy, everything should be done to ensure that the process is not derailed in any way.
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