The law (Section 8 of the 1951 Act) disqualifies anyone who has been convicted of a crime and sentenced to imprisonment of two years or more from contesting elections. For certain specified offences, even conviction without sentence of imprisonment invites a ban on contesting election. This restriction would be acceptable our courts conducted trials and issued verdicts in reasonable periods of time. Unfortunately, our legal procedure being painfully slow, the completion of a trial in criminal cases takes long years, and persons facing trial for very serious offences often continue
