New limits on city polls' expenses
Wednesday, 7 April 2010
The government has agreed to the maximum level of expenditure allowed by candidates in the mayor and councilor elections in all the six city corporations.
The Law Ministry Monday approved Local Government (City Corporation) Rules, code of conduct and Electronic Voting Machine Regulation, which imposes election expenditure for the mayor candidates to a maximum of Tk 5.0 million (50 lakh) and for the councillors Tk 0.6 million. Additional money can also be spent on personal expenses, reports bdnews24.com.
The regulation also sets out a new method to calculate how much money can be spent in each constituency, which is dependent on the number of voters.
Election Commission Secretary Mohammad Humayun Kabir told the news agency, "The law ministry has approved common city corporation Regulations. These regulations will be issued as a gazette by Thursday."
Chief Election Commi-ssioner ATM Samsul Huda Sunday said if the Regulation was passed by April 15, the election schedule for the Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) could be declared a few days later. He also said the election might be held at the end of May.
About the limits set for election expenditure, the election commission said that the numbers of voters were different in the city corporations. Therefore, the commission thought that it would be fair if the election expenditure was in proportion to the electorates.
Senior Assistant Secretary of the EC Abdul Baten said the drafts sent by the commission were approved unchanged after scrutiny.
The updated voter list of DCC enlists more than 3.7 million voters. The number is about 1.0 million in Chittagong, 0.2 million and 57 thousand in Rajshahi, 0.39 million in Khulna, 0.17 million in Barisal and 0.25 million in Sylhet.
The Law Ministry Monday approved Local Government (City Corporation) Rules, code of conduct and Electronic Voting Machine Regulation, which imposes election expenditure for the mayor candidates to a maximum of Tk 5.0 million (50 lakh) and for the councillors Tk 0.6 million. Additional money can also be spent on personal expenses, reports bdnews24.com.
The regulation also sets out a new method to calculate how much money can be spent in each constituency, which is dependent on the number of voters.
Election Commission Secretary Mohammad Humayun Kabir told the news agency, "The law ministry has approved common city corporation Regulations. These regulations will be issued as a gazette by Thursday."
Chief Election Commi-ssioner ATM Samsul Huda Sunday said if the Regulation was passed by April 15, the election schedule for the Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) could be declared a few days later. He also said the election might be held at the end of May.
About the limits set for election expenditure, the election commission said that the numbers of voters were different in the city corporations. Therefore, the commission thought that it would be fair if the election expenditure was in proportion to the electorates.
Senior Assistant Secretary of the EC Abdul Baten said the drafts sent by the commission were approved unchanged after scrutiny.
The updated voter list of DCC enlists more than 3.7 million voters. The number is about 1.0 million in Chittagong, 0.2 million and 57 thousand in Rajshahi, 0.39 million in Khulna, 0.17 million in Barisal and 0.25 million in Sylhet.