Competent, honest men not elected in local polls

Political leaders, academics and civil-society members disagreed with an observer group''s view that competent and honest candidates were not elected in the just-held local-body polls, reports UNB."It''s enough for the qualification of candidates being honest and competent. Ph.D.-holders are not necessary in the elections," said Professor Dr Abul Barkat, general secretary of Bangladesh Economic Association. He made the observations at the launch of the report titled ''City and Pouro Election Observation: Findings and Future Implications'' of Brotee, a Samaj Kalyan Sangstha, at the DRU auditorium Thursday.He said despite some negative aspects, there were some positive signs of the test polls, including high voter turnout, increased participation of women and minority voters, decrease in terrorism and least money games seen in the August 4 elections. Awami League leader Col (retd) Farook Khan said candidates'' educational qualifications are the expectation of country''s voters. "What they want is the qualification of the candidates," he said, adding that honesty and competence of candidates could be determined only by the voters and the courts in the country.He observed the bid for "de-politicization" in Bangladesh has gone bust through these local-body polls. "It is proved that the people of the country don''t want the de-politicization," he said. Speaking at the function, Brotee''s chief executive officer Sharmin Murshid noted that Monday''s elections for four city corporations and nine municipalities were held with greater voter turnout, huge participation of women and minorities, less fake voting and violence, and improved law-and-order situation.She said Brotee observers identified some negative issues like concealment of information, excessive election expenditure, unexpected educational qualifications of the candidates and so."It was expected that honest, competent and uncontroversial candidates should contest the polls. But that expectation didn''t come true," the election-observer group''s chief told the function about their findings over the first voting exercise since the 1/11 changeover in the country''s political scenario. Former caretaker government Adviser Hafizuddin Khan, AL leader Dr Dipu Moni and Dhaka University professor Dr Asif Nazrul, among others, also spoke at the function.