Dhaka Bureau: The Election Commission has urged the parties participating in the 12th parliamentary elections to submit an account of their election expenses within three weeks. After the January 7 polls, there is an obligation to give an account of party election expenses by April 7.
This time, 28 parties participated in the election. So far, no party has submitted the election expenditure account to the Election Commission.
In a circular on Thursday, the Election Commission reminded that there is a provision in the People’s Representation Order that the registered political parties participating in the election must submit the election-related expenditure statement to the Election Commission within 90 days of the end of the election.
Currently, there are 44 parties registered with the Election Commission. 28 parties, including the ruling Awami League and the main opposition party in the parliament, the Jatiya Party, participated in this election. On the other hand, 16 parties, including the BNP, have boycotted the election.
This time, the parties have fielded more than a hundred candidates: Awami League (Boat) 266, Jatiya Party (Plow) 265, Trinamool BNP (Sonali Ansh) 135 and National People’s Party (Mango) 122. And there are parties that have fielded a minimum of four candidates.
The parties had the opportunity to spend between Tk 75 lakh and Tk 4.5 crore on the basis of the candidate ratio. In cases of less than 50 candidates, Tk 75 lakh, Tk 1.5 crore for 50–100 candidates, Tk 3 crore for 101–200 candidates, and Tk 4.5 crore for more than 201 candidates are allowed in the law.
Ever since the Election Commission introduced the registration of political parties in 2008, it has not published the annual income-expenditure accounts of the parties but has been publishing the electoral expenditure accounts.
According to the Public Representation Order, the EC has the power to issue a warning notice within 30 days if the account of party expenses is not submitted within the stipulated time, then a fine of Tk 10,000 for another 15 days, and if the account is not submitted within the extended period, the EC has the power to cancel the registration.
In the last 11th parliamentary elections, the ruling Awami League showed 1 crore 5 lakh taka, BNP 1 crore 11 lakh taka, and Jatiya Party only 4.5 lakh taka party expenditure.
There were also seven teams that did not spend a single penny. They commented that without party donations, their candidates managed their own expenses in the constituencies.
