Nip corruption in the bud in the adoption process of political leaders

Dear Editor,

CANDIDATES vying for various political positions recently filed for nominations. Some people are contesting for positions of councillors and others for Members of Parliament (MPs).

Some people applied for adoptions on the ruling Patriotic Front (PF) ticket while others on the tickets of the opposition political parties. This is democracy as people have the democratic right to contest on the political parties of their choice.

This year’s general elections have seen an unprecedented number of candidates contesting for various positions. You would find that 10 candidates have applied for adoption on a particular party ticket in a constituency or ward for instance.

Matero constituency is a case in point where 10 candidates applied for adoption to stand as Members of Parliament on the Patriotic Front ticket. The high number of people seeking adoption also applies to the opposition political parties.

The high levels of competition for adoption has culminated in corruption. Some aspiring candidates are alleged to have bribed the potential voters and those responsible for selecting the successful candidates. This should not be the case because this is tantamount to an offence.

However, people without support at the grass root might end up being adopted because the selection process for adoption might have been marred with corruption.

In this vein, I earnestly appeal to the relevant security agencies such as the police, the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) and the Drug Enforcement Commission (DEC) to probe the matter of corruption to the core and bring the culprits to book.

The adoption process in this year’s general elections must be transparent devoid of any corruption. Let the deserving candidates preferrably those with support at the grass root be adopted.