Gazipur, Khulna polls: EC forms panel to check campaign spending

The Election Commission has formed a committee to verify accounts of campaign expenditure by mayor and councillor contestants in the Gazipur and Khulna city corporation polls.

The panel has been asked to submit the reports related to the electoral expenditure within two days.  
 
The members of the panel include assistant returning officers, district administrators, police commissioner and the divisional controller of accounts.  

EC Assistant Secretary Md Forhad Hossain said, “The expenditure limit has been set. Candidates have already submitted their possible expenditure statements. The committee will observe that the expenditure does not cross the permissible limit.”  

The commission has fixed the election campaign expenditure limit in line with the proportion of voters for the contestants.

>> A Gazipur mayoral candidate’s election campaign expenditure must not cross Tk 3 million and the individual spending, including food and fuel costs, is limited to Tk 150,000.

>> A Khulna mayoral candidate’s election campaign expenditure must not exceed Tk 1.5 million and the individual expenditure limit is Tk 75,000.

>> Political parties will not be allowed to spend more than Tk 500,000 for their every nominated candidate.

However, there are allegations that the commission does not monitor the campaign expenditure properly.

Soon after Dhaka and Chattogram city corporation polls in 2015, Transparency International Bangladesh said many candidates breached the election campaign spending limits. 

The EC has already scrutinised the nomination applications of aspiring mayor, general and reserved-seat councillor candidates for the two city corporation polls to be held on May15.

The deadline to withdraw the candidature from the race is Apr 23.

Gazipur City Corporation consists of a mayor, 57 general councillors and 19 councillors from reserved seats while the number of total voters is 1,164,425.

Khulna City Corporation consists of a mayor, 31 general councillors and 10 reserved-seat councillors while the number of total voters is 493,454.

Dhaka regional election officer Rakibuddin Mandol has been made the returning officer for Gazipur city elections and Khulna regional election officer Md Yunus Ali for Khulna city elections.