The proposed amendment to Section 8 (1) of the Representation of People Act, Sangma observed, only spoke of disqualification of the individual.

Addressing the seminar, inaugurated by Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, Sangma maintained the situation had deteriorated to the extent that `shouting brigades' had been introduced in Parliament with a view to shouting down the speeches of those having the opposite line of thinking and disrupting the working whenever directed to do so by their party.

He pointed out that on the last occasion, the budget was passed without any discussion and that demands of each and every ministry were guillotined.

``The problem really is one of exclusion. Exclusion of ideas, exclusion of individuals and of groups, on various impermissible grounds,'' the former speakersaid.

Participating in the seminar, another ex-speaker Shivraj Patil suggested a `no-confidence motion' should be passed only by a two-thirds majority.

He also proposed that voting should be made compulsory and said a candidate must get 50 per cent votes for being declared elected and, if necessary, by providing a run-off.

Former Supreme Court judge V R Krishna Iyer said a party should be disqualified if it abandoned or departed from its manifesto upon which it had contested elections.

While Janata Dal leader S Jaipal Reddy felt the time was not yet ripe for replacing the existing system by `list system' of elections, Law Commission chairman Justice B P Jeevan Reddy proposed that Lok Sabha seats should be increased by 25 per cent through the list system on the basis of territorial division. ``This will correct the imbalances existing in the present electoral system,'' he observed.

Meanwhile, Law Commission member N M Ghatate said all European democracies which operated in a multi-party system hadgiven up the `first past the post' system and opted for the `list system'.

Speaking on the theme `Criminalisation of Politics', senior journalist Dileep Padgaonkar said discrediting of political class as such was a very unhealthy development in any democracy and pointed out that such a process in the 1920s and 30s in Europe had led to the emergence of fascist dictatorship.

Several participants suggested antecedents of candidates should be published by each political party and that assets of each contestant should be made public.