KATHMANDU, 30

Lawmakers of Rastriya Swatantra Party today knocked on the door of Patan High Court to register a writ against the Election Commission.

"The writ will be heard by a single bench tomorrow," said, Registrar of Patan High Court Thagindra Kattel, adding, "The writ was filed as serious predicament and there seems to be a serious perplexing situation between the EC and lawmakers. Five RSP lawmakers registered a certiorari writ today."

RSP's parliamentarians, including Sobita Gautam, Biraj Bhakta Shrestha, Sishir Khanal, and Ganesh Parajuli reached the high court claiming that the EC imposed fines on them even though they had made their election expenditure details public.

Sobita Gautam said, "The Commission has misinterpreted the law and misused my name without any legal basis. My serious attention has been drawn to the EC press release titled "Decision to fine Rs 15,000 on candidates who failed to publicise the details of election expenses," published on 25 July 2023," reads her post.

She further said, "According to section 72 of the members of the HoR Act 2017, I submitted my election expenditure statement to District Election Office, Kathmandu, on 14 December 2022. The registration number is 19. My expense details were published on my personal Facebook account and various national dailies and online news."

Her post further states that according to Section 31 (4) of the Election (Offences and Punishment) Act 2016, which has been mentioned by the Election Commission for taking action, there is no legal basis for my name to be included.

Similarly, another RSP lawmaker, Ganesh Parajuli said, "I have already presented the expenditure details to clarify that I have submitted and made public the income and expenditure details of the election campaign in accordance with section 72 of the HoR Members Act 2017."

According to Section 31 (4) of the Election (Offences and Punishment) Act 2016, which has been mentioned by the EC for taking action, I don't see any legal reasons for my name to be included.

Hence, I would like to draw the serious attention of the Election Commission to this matter," stated Parajuli.

MP Parajuli published a photo of his expenditure details on 21 December 2022 on Facebook.

EC spokesperson Shaligram Sharma Paudel said many of the candidates have made their expenditure statements public through their social media handles or through various other means. But they have failed to follow the election expenditure legal process of the EC.

"Their Facebook post is not admissible. They need to submit proof that they have made their expenditure," he said, adding, "We are not friends with all the candidates on Facebook. It is not possible for EC to check all the online publications too.

That's why EC has a legal process for submission of expense details and we had published a notice regarding submission of the expenditure in Gorkhapatra on April 19, which they have failed to follow. Hence, we have imposed fine on 2,435 candidates out of 5,600 candidates who participated in elections last November."

"We have not been informed about the writ yet. I think we will be informed tomorrow as the writ processes are followed," he added.

Earlier, the EC imposed a fine on 2,435 candidates - 1,037 parliamentary candidates and 1,398 provincial candidates - for failing to make their election expenditure statements public.

A total of 74 candidates - 37 parliamentary and 37provincial candidates - did not submit their election expenditure details to the EC.

According to EC Spokesperson Shaligram Sharma Paudel, the EC imposed a fine of Rs 15,000 on each erring candidate.

Paudel said the EC had reminded the candidates of the legal provision that required them to make their election expense details public, but even after the EC's reminder, these candidates ignored the EC, hence the fine as per Section 31(2) of the Election (Offence and Punishment) Act, 2017.

Section 31 (4) of this Act, gives the EC the power to impose a fine not exceeding Rs 15,000 on candidates who fail to make their election expenditure details public.

Section 31 (2) stipulates that candidates will have to make their election expenditure details public for information to the public, as directed by the EC.

A version of this article appears in the print on July 31, 2023, of The Himalayan Times.