Loan defaulters won’t be allowed to join JS polls: Salehuddin

Finance Adviser Salehuddin Ahmed has categorically stated that the government will not allow loan defaulters to participate in the upcoming general election, expected to be held before Ramadan in February next year.

“However, we will have nothing to do if the politicians get nominations and votes in exchange for money,” he said this while talking to reporters at a press conference held at his ministry office in Dhaka on Wednesday.

The government is prepared to hold the 13th parliamentary election in a free, fair and inclusive manner and the finance ministry is ready to extend its all-out support to make the mission successful, he said.

Under the existing law, loan defaulters are restricted from contesting the parliamentary elections. According to Section 12 of the 1972 Representation of the People Order, no loan-defaulter is eligible to become a member of the National Parliament.

As a result, defaulters cannot be candidates for elections, however, the provision is often misused before every election.

“We always say that economic development depends on political culture. It is the responsibility of the Election Commission to identify loan defaulters. But, Mahiuddin Khan Alamgir (former home minister of Awami League govt) even served a full five-year term despite being a loan defaulter thanks to the court stay order,” he said.

Responding to a query over the influence of black money in the next general election, he said the Election Commission will deal with the issue.

There are two aspects of black money, one is the source and the other is the process, he said, adding that the source of the black money has been largely shut down compared to the past.

Earlier, the owner of a bank, an industrialist, a newspaper or a flat owner could be the same person, but now there is no such chance as a system of checks and balances has been developed, he added.