The New Nation - Internet Edition

Staff Reporter

A major portion of election expenses of this year's candidates' will go to print voter lists letting the candidates to spend more than the limit. This year the Election Commission (EC) did not supply printed voter lists to the candidates, which may cost them from Tk 1.5 lakh to 3 lakh.

This year EC has supplied only Compact Disc (CD) of voter lists instead of printed one. In the previous elections the EC has supplied printed voter lists to the candidates.

Now the candidates are printing the voter lists from the CDs. In each page they can print names of 30 voters. To print one set of voter list the candidates will have to print 6 thousand to 20 thousand pages. The printing cost of each page in Dhaka is Tk 4 to Tk 5 while outside Dhaka it is double. According to the EC rule a candidate can spend only Tk 5 for each voter.

EC sources said in the 300 constituencies each contains voter ranging from 1.5 lakh to 6 lakh. Of them 23 constituencies have voter below 2 lakh, 186 contains voter between 2 and 3 lakh and 81 constituencies have voter more than 3 lakh.

According to the delimitation of constituencies the lowest number of voters are in Chittagong-16. It has 1-lakh 52 thousand and 980 voters. Candidates of this constituency can spend Tk 7.64 lakh if they spend Tk 5 for each voter. To print a set of voter list candidates will have to spend Tk 2.5 lakh to Tk 3 lakh. For 8 to 10 sets of voter lists they will have to spend nearly Tk 2.5 lakh to Tk 3 lakh.

According to the press and photocopier businessmen the voter list printing costs in the constituencies that have voters more than 3 lakh may cost candidates more than Tk 3 lakh. Besides it may cost more than Tk 1 crore if a political party want to print a set of voter list. According to the EC law a political party can spend no more than Tk 4.5 crore if it gives candidate in 300 constituencies.