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CANDIDATES’ WEALTH INFO

EC can but doesn’t verify claims properly
BAHARAM KHAN
The Election Commission accepts the aspirants’ wealth statements but never takes any initiative to properly verify the accounts.
This raises questions over the commission’s sincerity in holding the candidates accountable and ensuring transparency, say campaigners for good governance.
According to former NBR chairman Badiur Rahman, the EC could exercise its inherent powers and ask the National Board of Revenue (NBR) and Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) to verify the wealth claims.
“The Election Commission can ask the NBR to scrutinise the claims. If there are doubts, the Anti-Corruption Commission can be engaged too,” he told The Daily Star.
As article 126 of the constitution makes it mandatory for all executive authorities to assist the EC, the institutions are bound to cooperate if the EC seeks their support.
On the other hand, the Representation of the People (amended) Act, 2023, does not make it mandatory for the EC to scrutinise the candidates’ wealth statements.
Election Commissioner Anisur Rahman said it is not the EC’s responsibility to scrutinise wealth statements.
If the NBR or ACC want, they can verify the claims about wealth, Anisur told The Daily Star recently.
However, Shusashoner Jonno Nagorik Secretary Badiul Alam Majumdar said even though the EC is not bound to verify wealth statements, it can and should do it for the sake of ensuring transparency.
“The Election Commission’s way of recording the candidates’ wealth information is nothing but paperwork. We don’t know if any candidate was ever quizzed about their wealth,” he said.
The EC is supposed to upload the candidates’ affidavits on its website immediately after receiving them, but it takes weeks to do it, he said.
Former election commissioner Muhammed Sohul Hussain said the wealth details submitted by candidates must be scrutinised.
“If they could not do it on a short notice, there should be a system to do it after the election,” he added.
Affidavits are a requirement for anyone participating in an election. Lying in the affidavits is punishable by up to three years in prison under the criminal law.
There is a provision in the Representation of the People Act, 2023, to cancel the candidacy of an aspirant for lying under oath.
The Supreme Court in 2007 asked the EC to collect the wealth At In
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