"We do not have experience in trying such people for 'red-telephone' corruption. Signatures of so many are found in files of tenders that it becomes difficult to identify who the real culprits are," he said.

Arresting the accused is not enough, justice and barring them from participating in the next election needs to be ensured, he said at a seminar at the National Press Club on "Electoral reforms: Immediate priorities for maximum impact".

Power and Participation Research Centre (PPRC) organised the seminar.

Mahmud said the government should create an environment so that the political parties are forced to nominate honest and qualified candidates.

The chief panellist of the seminar said many legal reform proposals, some of which may not be practical, would not bring significant changes if they were not implemented properly.

"We also should not be too much technology dependent. For example, introduction of voter ID card is a huge task and we don't want the present government to initiate a project and fail," he noted.

"What we need is a good political culture and mass awareness. The Election Commission (EC) however should be strengthened to punish the violators of the electoral rules," Mahmud said.

The PPRC put forward a number of proposals emphasising independence, accountability, and strengthening of the EC and transparency of the political parties to ensure a meaningful election.

The necessary amendments to the Representation of the Peoples Order (RPO) for electoral reforms is possible through the president's ordinance, said Prof Dr Asif Nazrul of Dhaka University who presented the PPRC's keynote speech.

"The EC must be able to function without the influence of the prime minister's office and spend its own budget independent of the finance ministry," he said, adding that it should also be allowed to impose hefty penalties and punishments and debar candidates from running for election in cases of violation of electoral laws.

Stressing transparency of the EC, he said it should be mandatory for the EC to publish on a website an annual report of its activities, decisions, proceedings of its meetings.

The election expenditure of the candidates should be made through the EC, which would print materials for them. The regulations for disclosing of the finances of the candidates should be strengthened. "People must have unfettered access to all information about the candidates' as furnished to the election authorities," Asif said.

He said utility bill defaulters and government officials who had been on retirement for less than three years must be disqualified for contesting in the election.

In the presentation, Prof Asif said registration of political parties and their accounts and income-sheet verifications should be made mandatory, while the electoral-dispute solutions should be done in the shortest time possible.

His proposals also include limiting the number of adjournments in court, simplifying the processes of the EC and abolishing the exemption of MPs from appearing before court.

Shushashoner Janya Nagorik (Shujan), an NGO, Secretary Dr Badiul Alam Majumdar endorsed most of the proposals and added the proposals of introducing "no vote", reducing the election expenditures and holding projection meetings for the candidates and demarcating the constituency on the basis of the number of voters.

Former law minister Abdul Matin Khasru said 60 percent problems in the election will be solved if the High Court order on the candidates' disclosures is properly implemented.

He suggested formation of a committee to appoint the election commissioners instead of the prime minister's unilateral decision on the issue and remove the High Court judges who were appointed during the last BNP government.

Dr Hossain Zillur Rahman of PPRC, who moderated the seminar, said the job of the MPs should also be defined. "It is not acceptable that an MP will be president of all the educational institutions of his constituency," he said.

He also stressed the upazila elections be held within a short time before or after the national elections. "There will be a great impact of it in the national politics as a campaign against corruption is now on," he added.

Munira Khan of Fair Election Monitoring Alliance and Supreme Court advocate Ruhul Kuddus also spoke on the occassion.