Candidates' poll expenditure limit Tk 15 lakh
The Election Commission (EC) yesterday announced expenditure limit for candidates for campaigning in the next parliamentary elections, setting the ceiling of expenditure at maximum Tk 15 lakh for each contestant.
Each candidate will be allowed to spend Tk 5 for each voter, said an EC press release yesterday.
The commission also released the voter list as per the re-demarcation of constituencies.
A candidate will be allowed to spend up to Tk 15 lakh if the number of voters in a constituency crosses three lakh.
"As per the sub-clause of the Representation of the People Order (RPO) the Election commission has fixed Tk 5 to be spent by candidates for each voter in the parliamentary elections," said the press release.
According to the new list of constituencies, Dhaka-19 is the largest constituency with 602,386 voters while Jhalakathi-1 is the smallest with 137,092 voters. Each candidate from Jhalakathi-1 will be allowed to spend maximum Tk 685,460 for election campaigning.
The candidates in 81 constituencies will be able to spend Tk 15 lakh each as the number of voters there are over three lakh.
Contestants from Panchagarh-1, the first parliamentary constituency with 291,095 voters, will be allowed to spend maximum Tk 1455,475 each while the contestants from Bandarban, the 300th parliamentary constituency with 195,995 voters, will be able to spend Tk 979,975 each.
In previous parliamentary elections, candidates from major political parties had spent huge amounts of money in a bid to influence voters.
The amended RPO will prevent the candidates from doing it again in the election slated for December 18, EC officials said.
They hoped that the new rules would curb the use of both black money and muscle power in the upcoming election.
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