KABUL - Based on the election law and procedures of the Independent Election Commission of Afghanistan (IEC), the candidates are obliged to report on their financial expenditures in the silent period 48 hours before holding of the presidential elections.

The election commission will put the financial report on its data and announce the report on it after the election campaigns are ended. Two weeks have been passed since holding of the elections, but the election commission yet to announce the exact genuine facts and figures about the financial expenditures of the elections and the people do not know that how much money the candidates have spent in the elections. “The IEC staffs are working to the details of the financial report which is submitted by the candidates and the report will be available for media on Saturday 19th April,” IEC spokesman Noor Mohammad Noor said. It is very important to mention that a number of candidates had complained about the limited amount of money set by the Election Law for campaigning.

Many believe the allotted amount of legal expenditures could be used up by most campaigns in a matter of weeks, coming short of the April 5 election day.

There are still some problems in the election law, the money set for Presidential campaigns is limited but we need to implement the law,” IEC spokesman Noor Mohammad Noor said. “As money is Afghanistan is physical, it’s hard to track its use, but we will try to supervise this process.” Based on the election law, 10 million Afs have been set for presidential candidates to spend in the election campaigns while the provincial council candidates are allowed to invest an amount of 500,000 Afs for campaigns. The election emphasizes that national institutions may also contribute in the campaigns according to the law and process.

The citizens are allowed to contribute 20,000 Afs while political parties and other institutions are permitted to offer 50,000 Afs and not more. According to the election law, election campaigns are obliged to open special ban account and must on their expenditures and money which they receive from other sources to the election commission. The bank account is supervised by the election commission. The candidates are also obligated to share the details of their expenditures so that the IEC enter the details of the expenditures into election commission database. In the meantime, a number of political commentators have said that the presidential and provincial council candidates should have submitted their report on the financial expenditures before launching campaigns on the basis of the law and election procedures.  (BNA)