Miscellaneous
Two parties submit PA elections expenses
Nepali Congress (NC) and CPN (Maoist Centre) have submitted details of their respective spending for Provincial Assembly (PA) elections under Proportional Representation (PR) category to the Election Commission.Prithvi Man Shrestha
Nepali Congress (NC) and CPN (Maoist Centre) have submitted details of their respective spending for Provincial Assembly (PA) elections under Proportional Representation (PR) category to the Election Commission.
Congress’ PR candidates spent as Rs 28.08 million in the provincial elections. Maoist Centre spent Rs4.90 million for PA elections.
NC’s PR candidates for the Lower House spent Rs20.58 million. Overall, NC’s PR candidates spent a total of 48.66 million for both Lower Houses and Provincial Assemblies.
Maoist Centre has not yet submitted the details of PR candidates for the Lower House.
Over a dozen political parties have submitted the details of expenditure in Provincial Assembly elections under Proportional Representation category within the deadline although 18-31 parties participated in the elections under PR in different provinces.
Among the national parties, Rastriya Janata Party Nepal has submitted details of expenditure for Lower House under PR category. Sanghiya Samajwadi Forum Nepal General Secretary Ram Shahaya Prasad Yadav claimed his party has also submitted expenditure details to the EC.
Bibeksheel Sajha Party, Rastriya Prajatantra Party (Prajatantrik), Rastriya Janamorcha, Nepal Majdur Kishan Party, Nepali Congress (BP), Bahujan Shakti Party, Rastriya Shiva Sena and Rastriya Nagarik Party, Mangol National Organization, Green Party Nepal, Tamangsaling Loktantrik Party, Nepa Rastriya Party, Janaprajatantrik Party and Deshbhakta Samaj are other parties submitting the expenditure details by their PR candidates for Provincial Assembly elections, according to EC.
As per the Act on Provincial Assembly elections, the party, candidate or his or her representative should submit expenditure details to Election Commission (EC) or its designated offices within 35 days after the elections results are declared.
It has been 44 days since the Election Commission declared winners under the PR in the provincial elections on January 18. Ruling CPN (UML) and other many smaller parties have not submitted the details of expenditure, according to EC.
As per the election body, the parties have to submit expenditure details of PR candidates to the EC headquarters.
Deadline for submitting expenditure details for PR candidates for the House of Representatives is still remaining as results were announced on February 9. A few parties have submitted the expenditure details of Lower House too.
As the EC has designed is Regional or District Election Offices to receive expenditure details of the candidates under First Past the Post (FPTP) category, the EC is yet to receive details from these offices whether all candidates submitted the details.
The ruling UML said that they were going to submit the details of expenditure under PR in the next three days. “We are going to submit the details of expenditure by our PR candidates in both House of Representatives and Provincial Assembly elections on March 6,” said Krishna Gopal Shrestha, central committee member of the UML.
Defending the delay in submitting expenditure details in time, Shrestha claimed that many candidates submitted their expenditure details personally to the EC.
As per the clause 26 of Election Commission Act, the EC can fine either the amount equivalent to expenditure or the limit set by the EC whichever is higher.
Nepali Congress and Maoist Centre (PR) POLL expenses
Provinces NC Maoist Centre
1 Rs4.71m Rs0.73m
2 Rs5.26m Rs0.90m
3 Rs6.26m Rs0.82m
4 Rs3.17m Rs0.62m
5 Rs3.81m Rs0.89m
6 Rs2.18m Rs0.42m
7 Rs2.67m Rs0.49m
Source: Election Commission