Ershad, 7 others to be sued over poll spending info

The Election Commission (EC) has asked returning officers to sue eight contestants in the Jan 5 national polls, including Jatiya Party Chairman HM Ershad, for not submitting statements of election expenditure in time. EC’s Senior Assistant Secretary Mizanur Rahman sent letters to the deputy commissioners of Lalmonirhat, Sherpur, Sunamganj, Lakshimpur, Mymensingh and Munsiganj districts and the divisional commissioners of Barisal and Chittagong. They acted as the returning officers (RO). The letters said filing cases was ‘very urgent’ for their not submitting non statements of expenditure in the 10th parliamentary elections. They said the EC had asked for filing of cases against the candidates (including those elected uncontested) who did not submit expenditure statements to the ROs or submitted them 30 days after publication of the election result gazette, according to bdnews24.com.