EC officials for no vote, scrutiny of party audits

Some senior field level officials of the Election Commission (EC) have proposed to scrutinise the authenticity of the annual audit reports of political parties and polling expenditures of candidates in the national election.

They came up with the opinion after EC asked for their suggestions for amending the electoral law -- the Representation of the People Order (RPO) 1972.

According to the act, all registered parties submit their annual audit reports containing details of their annual income and expenditure to the EC for scrutiny.

Similarly all contesting candidates in the parliamentary poll submit statements on their electoral expenses after completion of the election but the law says nothing about whether the EC should scrutinise those or not.

Usually the EC never scrutinises these reports; rather it stashes the documents in sacks and leaves those abandoned.

Although the demand was raised from different quarters to scrutinise and make the reports public, the EC did not pay any heed to it.

That is why, the election officials say, an effective mechanism must be developed so that the reports are scrutinised and legal action can be taken for false information, if any.

"If the annual audit reports of political parties can be thoroughly scrutinised, transparency will be ensured in the financial dealings of the political parties, and it will curb corruption," said SM Ezaharul Haque, regional election officer (REO) of Sylhet.

Before each parliamentary poll, the EC sets a ceiling of electoral expenditures for each candidate but in most cases, the candidates spend several times as much and there is no mechanism to properly check it.

Suvash Chandara Sarker, REO of Rajshahi region, said after elections candidates stated that small amounts of money were spent, which was false.

In the 10th parliamentary election last year, the ceiling of expenditure was Tk 25 lakh but many spent more than Tk 1 crore.

"So there needs to be an effective mechanism to check the expenses when the campaign is going on... Legal action must be taken if anyone violates the rule," he suggested.

Besides, some officers recommended reintroduction of 'no' vote in the parliamentary poll.

"In many cases, people do not find suitable candidates. At that time, the voters can express their opinion through 'no' votes," said Bibhor Kumar Biswas, REO of Comilla region.

The provision of 'no' vote was scrapped in 2008.

On June 10, the EC sent letters to the REOs seeking their recommendations on possible changes to the RPO. At least six REOs, out of 10 across the country, gave similar suggestions following discussions with the district level election officers.

EC Secretary Sirazul Islam admitted that checking electoral expenses was still a major challenge.

"We have got the recommendations and will place those before the commissioners for further action," he told The Daily Star.

Former Chief Election Commissioner ATM Shamsul Huda, during his tenure from 2007 to 2012, acknowledged that controlling the use of black money remained a major challenge in holding fair elections.

Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) Trustee M Hafizuddin Khan said, "Scrutiny of these financial statements is very much important for ensuring transparency and accountability."