Kathmandu, September 15

Three prominent poll observation organisations today said the Election Commission had failed to curb violation of the election code of conduct in the phase III local level polls.

Organising a pre-election press meet in the capital, National Election Observation Committee, General Election Observation Committee and Sankalpa said   election code of conduct was being violated by all political parties, candidates and the government.

GEOC Chairperson Himalaya Shumsher JB Rana said the use of muscle power had diminished in the election but use of money emerged as a serious problem.

“Parties and candidates have spent up to Rs 10 million in one local level in some districts,” said Rana, adding that the EC was doing nothing to check code violation.

GEOC Chairperson Surya Prasad Shrestha said the EC had shown helplessness by saying that it could not take action against the prime minister and the government for violation of polls code of conduct. “Why did the EC set polls code of conduct if it cannot implement it?” said Shrestha. He said political parties had been launching provocative and anarchic poll campaigns and the election body had become a mere spectator.

NEOC General Secretary Gopal Krishna  Siwakoti said most of the candidates spent up to 10 times higher than the amount fixed by the EC.

As per the EC’s rules,  mayoral and deputy mayoral candidates of a metropolitan city can  spend Rs 750,000, ward member candidate of a metropolitan city   Rs 300,000, mayoral and deputy mayoral candidates of sub-metropolitan city   Rs 550,000, and ward chief and ward member candidates  Rs  250,000. Likewise, mayoral and deputy mayoral candidates of a municipality can spend up to  Rs 450,000, ward member candidate  Rs 200,000, candidates for chief and deputy chief of rural municipality  Rs  350,000 and ward member candidate can  spend Rs 150,000 during poll campaigning.

Siwakoti said political parties were competing to spend money in Province 2 and used materials such as clothes, cap, sticker, logo, bag, towels with their election symbols. He said children and vehicles with Indian registration plates were also used in the election campaigns.