Candidates must open new bank account for poll expenses: EC

Candidates contesting the assembly elections in five states will have to open new bank accounts to make all the poll-related payment, a move initiated by the Election Commission to faciliate monitoring of such expenditure.

"Candidates would be required to open a separate bank account and incur their election expenses from that very account," Chief Election Commissioner S Y Quraishi told reporters here.

He said the move would help achieve greater transparency and ease monitoring of election expenses.

Seeking to tackle the menace of paid news, Quraishi said a multi-level monitoring mechanism has been put in place in the five poll-bound states of UP, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur.

Monitoring committees have been set up at district, state and Commission level to deal with the issue of paid news, he said.

"Representatives of political parties and media organisations of poll going states have also been briefed" on the issue of paid news, he said.

The General Observers deployed in every constituency will be asked to keep a close watch on every stage of the electoral process to ensure free and fair elections, he said.

In addition, the Commission will also deploy micro-observers to observe the poll proceedings in selected critical polling stations on the poll day, he said,

"They will be tasked to ensure the purity of the polling process and will report to the general observers directly about any vitiation of the poll proceedings in their allotted polling stations," Quraishi said.