Kathmandu. KATHMANDU — Political parties and candidates have started opening separate bank accounts for the election and handing them over to the Election Commission (EC) as per the provision of making election expenses transparent.

According to the EC, the parties and candidates participating in the elections scheduled for March 4 have started providing information by opening separate bank accounts. Joint Secretary at the EC, Yagya Prasad Bhattarai, said that so far 454 candidates and four political parties have informed about the separate bank accounts. A total of 3,406 candidates, including political parties and independents, are in the fray for the election.

The ‘House of Representatives Member Election Publicity Bank Account (Operation and Management) Work Procedure, 2082’ approved by the EC on February 4 has made provisions to make the amount of financial assistance to the parties and candidates participating in the election and the expenditure incurred during the election campaign to be frugal and transparent.

So far, three political parties have submitted their election manifestos to the EC. The EC has directed the EC to submit its election manifesto by February 13.

Clause 21 of the Election Offences and Punishment Act, 2017 states that a candidate or an election agent or any other person shall not influence any voter with cash in the form of gifts, prizes, prizes, donations or boxes for exercising his or her right to vote during the election period.

Clause 27 of the Act states that a political party, candidate or election representative can receive any kind of financial support from the government or public body or non-governmental organization in the course of the election campaigning against the prevailing laws.

Joint Secretary Bhattarai said that after opening a separate account for the election, the accounts of the erstwhile parties and candidates have to be transferred to this account. According to him, the EC would get the account shut down within 35 days of preparing the details of the expenses of the election campaigning.

The guideline has been introduced to make the election work systematic and dignified by effectively implementing Clause 16 of the Election Code of Conduct, 2082. The commission has also fixed the limit of expenditure of the candidates.

The government has fixed the expenditure limit for the election in the range of Rs 25 lakh to Rs 33 lakh. This information was published in the Nepal Gazette (Part 5, Number 41) of October 14, 2022.

The documents and financial records of these accounts will remain confidential as per the prevailing laws after the details of the accounts are submitted to the office of the Commission and the Office of the Comptroller of Treasury. The Commission’s mechanism will regularly monitor the income and expenditure of the accounts. The EC has assigned the chief of the district-based Fund and Account Comptroller Office as the monitoring officer for the monitoring of election expenses.