The Election Commission (EC) has formed special monitoring team to control election expenditure of candidates in the upcoming Rajshahi, Khulna, Sylhet and Barisal city corporation elections which scheduled to be held on June 15.
The special monitoring team will start their activities from Sunday with the end of deadline for scrutiny and withdrawal of candidature for mayor and councillor, EC officials told the Dhaka Tribune on Saturday.
The monitoring team will see whether any violation of electoral code of conduct takes place in any of the four city corporation polls slated for June 15.
Besides, EC’s vigilance and observation teams led by returning officers of the respective city corporations have already started their activities to make sure that electoral laws are followed by candidates and elections are accepted to all participants.
EC officials informed that the special monitoring team would keep vigil on the activities of mayoral and councillor candidates. A representative of the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has been included in the special committee. The candidates of these city corporation elections will submit their poll expenditures in every seven days to the special monitoring team. The monitoring team will examine the poll expenditures of the candidates.
If any miscalculation is detected in poll expenditures, the special team will take immediate actions against the wrongdoers, they added.
The EC officials also said the committee led by an additional deputy commissioner comprises representatives from the EC, National Board of Revenue (NBR) and the ACC. Additional district police superintendent is also a member of the committee while thana election officer will act as the member- secretary.
The EC will deploy the special monitoring teams in every ward under the central committee. Candidates will also submit return of poll expenditures to the returning officer by 30 days of publishing the gazette.
Returning officers of these four city corporations confirmed that the EC has formed the special monitoring team to control poll expenditure of these city corporations. The monitoring team will start their activities on Sunday (Today), they said, adding that the vigilance and observation teams of the EC has already started their works in the four city corporations for holding free, fair and impartial elections.
For holding a free, fair and peaceful election, the EC will deploy 40 executive and 20 judicial magistrates to maintain the law and order during these four city polls. The executive magistrates will active on Monday and judicial magistrates will start their work from June 13 to June 15.
Magistrates may impose a fine of Tk 50,000 or six -month imprisonment on a person found guilty of violating the electoral code of conduct following the summery trial.
On the other hand, the EC is deploying its own observer in these four city corporations polls. The observers will inform to the assistant returning officer, returning officer and the EC about any kinds of violation of electoral laws. The first grade officials of the EC have been appointed as observer.