Defaulters given 30 days for submission
Wednesday, 1 April 2009
Major political parties, including the ruling Bangladesh Awami League (AL) and the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), submitted their returns of election expenditures to the Election Commission (EC) Tuesday to meet the March 31 deadline, reports UNB.
The Commission plans to alert the defaulter political parties which failed to submit the returns by the terminal time Tuesday asking them to submit the poll-spending accounts within the next 30 days before proceeding for action.
"Tomorrow (Wednesday) we'll send letter to the political parties which failed to submit the returns today (Tuesday)," Election Commissioner M Sakhawat Hossain told reporters at his office in the afternoon.
Earlier, the Commission had requested the political parties which contested the December 29 parliamentary elections to submit their returns of election expenditures to the Commission by March 31.
Prof Abdul Mannan, on behalf of BNP, the former ruling party, submitted the returns of the party's election expenditure to the Commission, showing a total amount of Tk 44.905 million spent on the polls that they lost out to the AL-led grand alliance.
Adv Jasim Uddin Sarker of their main ally, Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, said his party submitted the return of a total of Tk 74,72,408, stating that most of the money had gone into publishing the party manifesto.
Awami League's exact reckoning on the spending for the crucial elections that yielded for them a mammoth victory could not be known as the AL delegation declined to reveal the figure to the media.
"We've spent some Tk 15 million to 20 million on the election campaigns," AL leader SK Habibullah told reporters in reply to a question.
Election Commissioner Sakhawat said that the political parties which contested the ninth parliamentary elections had to submit the returns within 90 days from the date of the election gazette publication with the result as per article 44CCC of the Representation of People Order (RPO).
Replying to a question, he said the Commission would alert the political parties extending the time by 30 more days to submit the returns. If they fail again to submit the returns by the deadline, the EC would again provide them an additional 15 days for submitting the returns with fines according to the rules.
The Commission plans to alert the defaulter political parties which failed to submit the returns by the terminal time Tuesday asking them to submit the poll-spending accounts within the next 30 days before proceeding for action.
"Tomorrow (Wednesday) we'll send letter to the political parties which failed to submit the returns today (Tuesday)," Election Commissioner M Sakhawat Hossain told reporters at his office in the afternoon.
Earlier, the Commission had requested the political parties which contested the December 29 parliamentary elections to submit their returns of election expenditures to the Commission by March 31.
Prof Abdul Mannan, on behalf of BNP, the former ruling party, submitted the returns of the party's election expenditure to the Commission, showing a total amount of Tk 44.905 million spent on the polls that they lost out to the AL-led grand alliance.
Adv Jasim Uddin Sarker of their main ally, Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, said his party submitted the return of a total of Tk 74,72,408, stating that most of the money had gone into publishing the party manifesto.
Awami League's exact reckoning on the spending for the crucial elections that yielded for them a mammoth victory could not be known as the AL delegation declined to reveal the figure to the media.
"We've spent some Tk 15 million to 20 million on the election campaigns," AL leader SK Habibullah told reporters in reply to a question.
Election Commissioner Sakhawat said that the political parties which contested the ninth parliamentary elections had to submit the returns within 90 days from the date of the election gazette publication with the result as per article 44CCC of the Representation of People Order (RPO).
Replying to a question, he said the Commission would alert the political parties extending the time by 30 more days to submit the returns. If they fail again to submit the returns by the deadline, the EC would again provide them an additional 15 days for submitting the returns with fines according to the rules.