SHILLONG, Dec 15: The office of the Meghalaya Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) on Thursday said it did not receive a statement of expenditure from the National People’s Party (NPP) as all national or state-recognised political parties are mandated to submit such a statement directly to the Election Commission of India.
Its mandate is strictly restricted to receiving the statements of expenditure of the contesting candidates, the CEO’s office said a day after the High Court of Meghalaya was nudged for the poll body’s “failure” in taking action against the NPP for flouting the law.
On Wednesday, Trinamool Congress national spokesperson Saket Gokhale sought the court’s action against the ruling NPP for not filing its election expenditure report within 75 days of the 2018 Assembly elections and called to attention the failure of the ECI and the Meghalaya CEO’s office to pull up the NPP.
“…there is already a carefully laid-down protocol and rule-bound sequence in respect of receipt of statements of expenditure of the contesting candidates,” the CEO’s office said in a statement, adding that the contesting candidates are to file their statements of expenditures with the returning officers (ROs) of their constituencies concerned.
There is also an expenditure monitoring team and an expenditure observer for periodically scrutinising these statements and returns, the statement said.
The respective ROs forward the above statements to the district election officer concerned, who compiles, collates and submits the same to the office of the CEO. Thereafter, the CEO’s office publishes the statements of expenditures of the contesting candidates and puts them in the public domain.
“It is highlighted that all the contesting candidates, fielded by a political party or independents, who contested the Meghalaya Legislative Assembly Election 2018, have duly complied and submitted their statements of expenditures with the office of the CEO, Meghalaya as per the above process,” the statement said.
“It is reiterated that only expenditure statements of individual candidates are submitted at state level with the office of the CEO as per the detailed process,” the statement said.
Stating that the NPP was a recognised state party in 2018, the CEO’s office said the matter was beyond its mandate.
Reiterating that the RTI filed by the applicant was promptly transferred by the office of the CEO to the competent higher authority, the statement said the ECI also took cognisance and duly responded to the applicant.
The ECI has also allowed the applicant to make an appeal to the first appellate authority, with details clearly indicated, within 30 days of the receipt of the above letter, in case the applicant is not satisfied with the information provided.
“The office of the CEO continues to remain committed to the conduct of free, fair and inclusive elections with bias or prejudice towards none. The deliberate aspersions cast appear mischievous, misdirected, misleading, avoidable and unfortunate,” the statement said.
