Biratnagar, December 21

Candidates from different political parties were found to have spent more than what was allowed for publicity in the recently-held provincial and parliamentary elections, in Morang.

The Election Commission had set the ceiling of poll expenses at Rs 25 lakhs for a parliamentary candidate and Rs 15 lakhs for a provincial assembly candidate.

A source said almost all candidates from major political parties had crossed the expense limit fixed by the poll body and that the candidates submitted their expense details, showing less amounts than what had been actually spent.

Regional Election Office Chief Prem Prasad Sanjel said, “In some cases, candidates have spent money ten times above the amount they have mentioned in their expense details,” he added.

Sanjel also said that of the total 169 parliamentary and provincial assembly poll candidates in the district, only a few candidates had submitted their expense details till now.

Morang Constituency No 4 candidate of Nepali Congress Mahesh Acharya was the first to submit details of election expenses. The details he provided stated that he spent Rs 1,958,250, whereas CPN-UML’s Constituency No 6 candidate Lal Babu Pandit, in his expense details, has mentioned that he spent Rs 1,316,178 on poll publicity campaigns.

Similarly, the expense details of Laxman Sahu, a parliamentary candidate from Constituency No 4 shows that he spent Rs 2,495,000, while those of Chuman Narayan Tabadar and Ramesh Prasad Pokhrel, both of whom were provincial assembly candidates from Constituency No 6 ‘Ka’ and ‘Kha’ revealed that their expenses were Rs 1,384,800 and Rs 854,792 respectively.

Likewise, Constituency No 5 ‘Kha’ and Constituency No 4 ‘Kha’ candidates Subhan Miya and Shree Ram Kamat have submitted poll expenses of Rs 550,000 and Rs 311,000 respectively.