The Elec tion Commission has readied a drait Code of Conduct to be followed by the political parties and the candidates at the time of the nation's general elections. They have dis patched copies of the same to the political parties. Copies would be sent to newspapers as well.

The EC, by writing the draft code, has taken a very necessary step towards the elections And a very good step it is. Congratulations. Nevertheless, the circulation of the draft code in fact switches on a chain of related events needed to make the code effective and desir ably contributive to a truly free and fair election. First of these is to open the code to a great national debate. Let the people speak out. And the parties And the professional groups The draft if finalised in the light of the points raised in the debate, would have the whole na tion involved in it. Which should mean it would have a national sanction behind it

And that is very important. If the Code of Conduct has to play a positive role in the over all management and conduct of the polls, the political parties and the candidates will have first to commit themselves to it. And keep the commitment to a fault till the end of the show. The national sanction would weigh heavy on the parties and candidates in favour of the code and would make it difficult for them to violate it for fear of going against the nation.

The Code of Conduct was one among the three things demanded by the opposition. In the code lies their recourse to rise to the power of fighting the government on an equal footing The code will oblige the ruling party not to use state power and property and facilities for election purposes. Fair play, towards which the code is the surest path, can be undermined more by the government than by the opposition because the former is at the helm of affairs. But such an eventuality would not only harm irreparably the government and BNP as a whole, it would push back the prospect of democracy — the only thing the election exercise will be staged to help attain.

All parties have a great stake in seeing the code prevail. If they all uphold it, individual candidates wouldn’t choose to be foolish. While it is still very uncertain how things will shape up to the elections, it is desirable that the code is perfected in good time to take command during the crucial election month.