Monitoring election expenditure

EC has no ‘functional mechanism’

The Election Commission has no functional mechanism or rules to assess the statement of election expenditure submitted by the candidates after an election.  
As the commission is dependent on the accounts of electoral expenditure furnished by candidates, experts say black money might come into play to win elections. According to them, the electoral expenditure statement is meaningless and could even be fabricated, as the commission merely receives unmonitored accounts of expenditure from the candidates.
They further say that to tackle the tendency of using black money to tamper with elections, the commission should have a strong monitoring system to oversee electoral expenditure of the candidates.
“The candidates do not provide correct information of their expenditure. They submit fabricated and speculated statements keeping it within the expenditure limit set by the commission,” Sushashoner Jonno Nagorik (Sujon), secretary, Dr Badiul Alam Majumder told The Independent yesterday (Wednesday). “Such statement of expenditure is meaningless, but can be meaningful if the EC monitors it properly,” he added.
 According to him, the Election Commission of India has a mechanism where the candidates provide daily expenditure statement, which the EC monitors. “But there is no such system in Bangladesh,” he pointed out.
 “In Bangladesh, the EC does not have the interest to monitor poll expenditure of the candidates and neither is it interested in impartial elections,” he alleged.
 Speaking on the subject, election expert Dr Tofail Ahmed said: “We have not seen any initiative of the EC to oversee election expenditure of the candidates. Generally, the monitoring of election expenditure starts at the beginning of an election. This system is in vogue in our neighboring country India, but we don’t see it in our country.”
 He also added: “In some cases, candidates are being elected unopposed without a penny being spent. It means, the future of democracy is bleak.”
According to the president, Fair Election Monitoring Alliance (FEMA), Munira Khan, the EC has the power to find out the expenditure of the candidates. “The EC has the power to oversee electoral expenditure of candidates, if it wishes to,” she claimed.
Recently, the candidates of the Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC), Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) and Chittagong City Corporation (CCC) submitted their election expenditure statements to the EC following elections on April 28. In the statements, the ruling Awami League-backed winning candidates for the DNCC spent Tk. 49,23,625 while he had shown election expenditure of Tk. 40,62,500.
The Awami League-backed DSCC mayoral candidate, Mohammad Sayeed Khokon, spent Tk 29,86,112, but showed his probable election expenses as Tk. 31,50,000.
Mayoral candidates of the DNCC got the opportunity to spend a maximum of Tk 52 lakh, including personal expenditure, as there were 23,45,374 voters.
The mayoral candidates of the DSCC and CCC polls got the scope to spend a maximum of Tk. 31 lakh, including personal expenditure, as there were 18,70,753 voters in the DSCC and 18,13,449 voters in the CCC polls.
According to the Election Commission secretary, Md Sirajul Islam, the EC did not have any rule to scrutinize the statement of election expenditure of the candidates. “We don’t have any rules in this regard. We only receive the statements provided by the candidates,” he said.
Asked whether the EC has plans to monitor the statements in future, he said: “We don’t have any such plan at this moment.”

 

Monitoring election expenditure

EC has no functional mechanism

The Election Commission has no functional mechanism or rules to assess the statement of election expenditure submitted by the candidates after an election. As the commission is dependent on the accounts of electoral expenditure furnished by candidates, experts say black money might come into play to win elections. According to them, the electoral expenditure statement is meaningless and could even be fabricated, as the commission merely receives unmonitored accounts of expenditure from the candidates. They further say that to tackle the tendency of using black money to tamper with elections, the commission should have a strong monitoring system to oversee electoral expenditure of the candidates. The candidates do not provide correct information of their expenditure. They submit fabricated and speculated statements keeping it within the expenditure limit set by the commission, Sushashoner Jonno Nagorik (Sujon), secretary, Dr Badiul Alam Majumder told The Independent yesterday (Wednesday). Such statement of expenditure is meaningless, but can be meaningful if the EC monitors it properly, he added. According to him, the Election Commission of India has a mechanism where the candidates provide daily expenditure statement, which the EC monitors. But there is no such system in Bangladesh, he pointed out. In Bangladesh, the EC does not have the interest to monitor poll expenditure of the candidates and neither is it interested in impartial elections, he alleged. Speaking on the subject, election expert Dr Tofail Ahmed said: We have not seen any initiative of the EC to oversee election expenditure of the candidates. Generally, the monitoring of election expenditure starts at the beginning of an election. This system is in vogue in our neighboring country India, but we dont see it in our country. He also added: In some cases, candidates are being elected unopposed without a penny being spent. It means, the future of democracy is bleak. According to the president, Fair Election Monitoring Alliance (FEMA), Munira Khan, the EC has the power to find out the expenditure of the candidates. The EC has the power to oversee electoral expenditure of candidates, if it wishes to, she claimed. Recently, the candidates of the Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC), Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) and Chittagong City Corporation (CCC) submitted their election expenditure statements to the EC following elections on April 28. In the statements, the ruling Awami League-backed winning candidates for the DNCC spent Tk. 49,23,625 while he had shown election expenditure of Tk. 40,62,500. The Awami League-backed DSCC mayoral candidate, Mohammad Sayeed Khokon, spent Tk 29,86,112, but showed his probable election expenses as Tk. 31,50,000. Mayoral candidates of the DNCC got the opportunity to spend a maximum of Tk 52 lakh, including personal expenditure, as there were 23,45,374 voters. The mayoral candidates of the DSCC and CCC polls got the scope to spend a maximum of Tk. 31 lakh, including personal expenditure, as there were 18,70,753 voters in the DSCC and 18,13,449 voters in the CCC polls. According to the Election Commission secretary, Md Sirajul Islam, the EC did not have any rule to scrutinize the statement of election expenditure of the candidates. We dont have any rules in this regard. We only receive the statements provided by the candidates, he said. Asked whether the EC has plans to monitor the statements in future, he said: We dont have any such plan at this moment.