Last Sunday, EC had issued a circular to all its district offices to seek election expenditures from the candidates from their respective districts, after if found 1,278 candidates of flouting the CA election Act. [break]
The election act requires candidates contesting in election to submit their poll expenditure details to district offices of EC within 35 days of the announcement of final results.
According to EC sources, six of the defying candidates are CA members. The members are lawmakers Renu Kumari Yadav of Madhesi People´s Rights Forum (MPRF), Pramod Gupta of MPRF-Democratic, Jitendra Sonal of Tarai Madhes Democratic Party (TMDP), Ramchandra Kushwaha of TMDP-Nepal, Saroj Kumar Yadav of Sadbhawana party (SP) and Shyam Sundar Gupta of SP-Anandi Devi.
According to sources, most of the candidates not submitting their financial reports are either from fringe parties or independent candidates.
Meanwhile, the EC committees formed to probe income-expenditure details of political parties have submitted their reports to Acting Chief Election Commissioner Neelkantha Uprety on Monday.
The constitutional body in January had formed two committees -- a steering committee headed by Commissioner Dolakh Bahadur Gurung and a functional committee headed by Joint-secretary Madhu Prasad Regmi -- to look into the financial details submitted by the political parties.
According to sources, the report recommends stringent action against the political parties that have not furnished their financial reports for the third consecutive year by January 16 deadline. As per the existing laws, the EC can annul registration of any party that fails to furnish its audited financial reports for three consecutive years.
Similarly, the constitutional body has been asked to warn the political parties that delayed have submission of their financial reports. Altogether 19 political parties have failed to submit their financial reports for three consecutive years.
The report also recommends EC to make it mandatory for the parties to conduct transactions above a certain amount only through banks to ensure transparency.
Likewise, the report recommends EC to direct the political parties to appoint officers to oversee their financial activities. It suggests that the political parties be provided trainings to manage their financial activities.
Asked when the report would be made public, a member of the committee said, "We have done our job. Now it is up to the EC to decide when and how to make the report public."
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