Political leaders and experts urged the Election Commission (EC) Tuesday to increase the limit on polls expenditure by a candidate from the present Tk 2.5 million.
Political leaders should earn more besides doing politics to spend more during election campaign," Mahbubul Alam Hanif, Awami League (AL) joint general secretary said.
He was addressing a roundtable titled ' Bringing Transparency in Political Finance to Bangladesh' organised by Election Working Group at CIRDAP auditorium in the city. Election Working Group director Abdul Alim presented a paper on the topic.
Hanif said, "We need a national consensus on election. Otherwise there would never be a credible election."
Adviser to the BNP chairperson Dr Osman Faruk said the country has enough electoral acts, laws and regulations and these needed to be implemented properly.
He called for a stronger Election Commission for transparent election and
urged for enhancing limit of election expenditure of a candidate.
Dr Iftekharuzzaman, executive director of Transparency International Bangladesh, said the country's politics is gradually going under the control of greedy people.
"As long as we cannot ensure democratic practice among the parties, we cannot ensure transparency in political finance," he said.
He said more businessmen contested the last two parliamentary elections.
"Political finance was always prevalent in the past but it has grown alarmingly at present," said Iftekharuzzaman.
"Traders constituted a mere 17.5 per cent of the legislature after the country's independence, which has now reached 59 per cent. We do not suggest that people from a particular profession cannot join politics. What we want to say is that politics and political establishment have now-a-days become a medium to earn profit," said the TIB official.
Iftekharuzzaman said local activists should be given priority while selecting candidates for national elections.
"We have better legal system compared to Nepal and Indonesia but when it comes for enforcement, our position is worse. We have laws but we cannot properly enforce those," he said, adding that political parties and the Election Commission have their failures in this respect.
"Our experience in the grassroots reveals that there are many invisible expenses beyond the electoral expenditures that are presented publicly. The illegal trade of nomination is one such aspect which can be described as a black magic area. This is the area that sees heavy transactions over nomination purposes," the TIB executive director said.
Election Working Group's management committee member Harun-ur-Rashid moderated the discussion, which was also attended by Democracy Watch executive director Taleya Rehman and Jatiya Party presidium member Golam Mohammad Quader.
bdsmile@gmail.com
