No hiding place

Let there be no misunderstanding. One of the last acts of the outgoing government was to amend the nomination forms for electoral candidacy in such a way as to exclude a range of information about the candidates that would be of considerable interest to the average voter. The Supreme Court on Wednesday June 6^th brought a stop to the manoeuvering designed to keep the truncated forms in place and ordered that yes, the forms as mandated by parliament may be used, but only if they are accompanied by an affidavit that included all the information that the aspirant candidates had sought to exclude.

Given the brouhaha of recent months surrounding the suitability of a variety of elected persons for public office, it might have been assumed that transparency would be uppermost in the minds of the political cadres, but not so. Devious to a fault they excluded information about nationality dual or otherwise, educational qualifications, current profession or business, sources of income, national tax number and a record of income tax paid, assets and liabilities of dependants, declaration of electoral expenses, criminal record and a declaration that the candidate will abide by the ECP code of conduct. No wonder the elected members sought to bury this mine of information because compliance with any or all of this is going to reveal some interesting inconsistencies.

The Supreme Court noted that it was not difficult to draft the affidavits and they could be available within 24 hours, and that the SC could brook no delay in the declared date of the polls for July 25^th. We support the SC in its pursuit of transparency and accountability. We equally support any penalty that might be imposed if affidavits are found to be falsified, a not uncommon occurrence. Specifically the SC would regard falsification as contempt of court, in which a guilty verdict may attract a custodial sentence. For too long politicians have played fast and loose with the electorate, having little compunction about deceiving them the better to harvest their votes. We await developments, probably accompanied by howls of pain and outrage, with interest.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 8^th, 2018.

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