The Election Commission on Monday sought clarification from CPN (Maoist Center) chair Pushpa Kamal Dahal regarding his statement that millions of rupees were spent by an elected representative during the local level elections held in May.

The commission sent the letter to Dahal seeking clarification on those who had spent money exceeding the commission’s spending limit, stating that the remarks had come from a former prime minister.

The commission’s letter states: “The commission can take the statements made by former prime ministers, chairperson or president of the ruling party, member of the House of Representatives and leader of a responsible party, seriously and use them as evidence.”

Earlier, on July 26, the commission had sent a letter, undersigned by Mohan Raj Joshi, law officer at the Election Commission, to the Maoist Centre party office. However, the office refused to accept the letter. The commission then sent another letter by post on July 27, the commission said.

The commission has also mentioned in the letter that the process has been started to take action against candidates who have exceeded the spending limit and against those who have not submitted their election expenditure details.

At the ninth memorial day programme of the founder of CPN, Nar Bahadur Karmacharya on July 25, Dahal said that it seems that “a chairman of a rural municipality had won the local election by spending Rs100 million”.

Dahal during the programme had said that it has been difficult to win elections without spending a lot of money.

The commission has set a maximum expenditure limit for a rural municipality candidate at Rs350,000.

Earlier, on April 11, the commission had also asked Nepali Congress leader Shashank Koirala for clarification regarding his statement on election expenses. Koirala had said that Rs 60-70 million rupees are needed to contest the elections.

Although the Election Commission has set an expenditure limit of Rs2.5 million for House of Representatives candidates, Koirala had said the elections are becoming more expensive and he had spent Rs60 million in the last elections.

However, Nepali Congress leader had submitted Rs2.1 million as his election expense to the election commission.