5 EC teams to closely monitor candidates’ poll expenses

Candidates hoping to get a ticket to fight it out at assembly Hustings in Gujarat will have another worry on their plate — that of election commission of India (ECI) breathing down their necks all along keeping a close watch on the money they spend on canvassing.

The state’s chief electoral officer (CEO) has indicated that they would be strictly adhering to instructions issued by the ECI around 18 months ago with regards to monitoring election expenses.

“This would be the first full-fledged election, where the ECI will be monitoring election expenses of candidates. The ECI had issued these instructions about one and half years ago. It was enforced during Mansa by-election but now it will be implemented across the state during the forthcoming assembly elections,” said Anita Karwal, CEO of Gujarat.

This time the CEO is looking at forming five teams to keep tabs on the money candidates will spend on campaigning in their respective constituency. “The first will be a static surveillance team (SST), which will be posted at one place and monitor the expense.

A second one will be called the flying squad, which will be mobile and collect information about money transactions and cash movement.

The third team will look at video surveillance and undertake videography of a candidate’s election expenditure, while the fourth team will be a video viewing team to study the videos submitted to the ECI and make an estimate of the expenses. The fifth and last team will be the accounting team that will calculate expenses in a candidate’s account based on the inputs given to it by other four teams,” Karwal said, outlining the specific roles of each team.

“The CEO, who is also the collector of the district, will ensure that monitoring of the election expenditure takes place. The DDOs will be overall in-charge of monitoring the election expense, while the ADM will be nodal officer for the monitoring,” Karwal informed. According to current rules, ECI permits a candidate to spend Rs16 lakh for an assembly election and Rs40 lakh for a parliamentary election.

Karwal also added that it would be mandatory for the candidates to open a separate bank account for the election expenditure and it will be mandatory that all election related financial transactions be conducted through it.