NASHIK: In an attempt to use technology to make the electoral process transparent, the State Election Commission (SEC) will develop a mobile application that will make recording the daily expenditure of candidates in civic elections mandatory and easy.
The upcoming Nashik Municipal Corporation’s five-yearly elections are going to be held on the backdrop of pandemic. As a result, the State Election Commission (SEC) has already imposed a number of strict restrictions on campaigning and voting. Similarly, the electoral process has also been modernised.
As a result, the SEC will now create a separate app for candidates to submit campaign expenses to the administration, which will enable candidates to deposit election expenses online and will bring transparency.
After filing of nomination at the time of election, it is mandatory for each candidate to submit to the administration by 2:00 pm the next day the expenses incurred on the workers as well as other campaigns as per the instructions of the State Election Commission.
Candidates who do not submit their expenses on time have also been issued notices on several occasions by the administration. Similarly, details of total expenditure incurred during the entire election process after polling is expected to be submitted to the administration within one month.
This includes the winning candidates as well as the losing candidates, but even if the candidates withdraw their candidature on the day of withdrawal, the contestants have to declare to administration the expenditure incurred during that period. If not, the law has a provision for disqualification for about six years. As a result, it is a process of showing the expenses incurred by the candidates to the administration during the election period.
But this year, a special mobile app will be developed by the Election Commission to show the expenses. Candidates will get the link on behalf of the administration after submitting their candidature nomination. This will be followed by a print-out of the details of the entire expenditure in the evening and the bill of expenses incurred along with the print will have to be submitted to the administration by 2:00 pm the next day.
This allows candidates to simply enter the expenditure of the day into their mobile and then print it out and pay the bill to the administration. Under the existing rules, candidates have to submit their daily expenses to the Returning Officer (RO) in a prescribed format on paper.