Thiruvananthapuram: The State Election Commission, Kerala, has disqualified 9,016 candidates who failed to declare their poll campaign expenses in the last elections to the Local Self-Governance institutions.
The action by State Election Commissioner A Shahjahan is effective for five years from August 23, 2022. The disqualification restrains the candidates from continuing as members of the local bodies and from contesting in the next local body polls.
The disqualified candidates are the ones who have failed to present the expenses to the Commission within a stipulated time or the ones who have spent exceeding the set limit.
Of the disqualified candidates, 436 contested in the Corporations, 1,266 in Municipalities, 71 in District Panchayaths, 590 in Block Panchayaths, and 6,653 in Panchayaths. The names of these candidates have been published on the Commission’s official website: www.sec.kerala.gov.in
In preliminary scrutiny by the Commission, none of the candidates who have won the poll is on the list of disqualified persons.
As per the norms, the account of expenses incurred must be produced before the Commission within 30 days from the day the results are published.
The elections to 1,199 local self-government institutions, except Mattannur Municipality, were held in December 2020. A total of 74,835 candidates contested in 21,865 wards.
While the upper limit of election expenditure is Rs 1,50,000 for a candidate in District Panchayath and Corporation, it is Rs 75,000 in Block Panchayath and Municipality. In Panchayaths, each candidate can spend only up to Rs 25,000 for election expenses.