45 candidates for two seats: time to raise the entry fees!

Chitral: 45 candidates have filed nomination papers for the two Assembly seats in Chitral district, 18 for NA1 and 27 for PA1.

The seriously contending candidates are not more than four or five in each constituency, but the large amount of entrants shows that contesting for an Assembly seat is not taken seriously and most of the candidates knowing well that they will end up as an ‘also ran’ still enter the competition. It could be for the sake of feeding their egos or for being mentioned on the TV and in the news papers as candidates or whatever, but certainly not for winning the contest.

That raising the educational standards and other qualificational criteria for the contestants has been opposed as ‘undemocratic’, the only way left to curb this mad rush to include names in the ballot paper is to raise the entrance fee substantially. A minimum of Rs 100000/- should be charged from Provincial Assembly candidates and Rs 300000/- from National Assembly candidates and this fee should be non refundable. If that is done, all the fundos who jump in just to be counted, would refrain from creating nuisance for the election commission and for serious voters who have difficulty sifting the election symbol of their choice from amongst dozens littering the ballot paper. .. CN report, 11 Jun 2018

One thought on “45 candidates for two seats: time to raise the entry fees!

  1. According to news, a person in Punjab Assembly constituency has filed 30 different nomination papers through as many persons while himself paying their fees. When asked what was his purpose, he said on the last day of withdrawal of papers, all 30 will withdraw in my favour projecting me as popular candidate while I will also get all my money back as per current rules. This is how democracy has been corrupted and is being misused, therefore, Immediate corrective measures like that mentioned in the above news report need to be adopted without delay.

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