News
Declaration of assets: Most candidates have met deadline say party seniors
View(s):Nearly 75 percent of the candidates have submitted their assets declarations to meet the extended deadline of July 30, announced by the Department of Elections. Both major parties had taken steps to make it compulsory for their candidates to submit their asset declarations.
The Elections Department had stated that candidates who failed to furnish their declarations by the given date would not be issued passes authorising them to visit polling booths on Election Day. “We have told our people that if they did not submit their assets declarations they would not be issued letters as organisers after the elections. All the organisers are candidates in this election, so this was a good way to push them,” UNP General Secretary Kabir Hashim said.
Mr. Hashim claimed that most had met the deadline. “Those who have not submitted their assets have not done so not because they don’t want to but because they are busy with their campaign work,” he said. He also appreciated the Elections Commissioner’s decision to not to issue ID cards to candidates if they failed to submit their assets declarations. Candidates need ID cards to enter counting centers.
Meanwhile UPFA party senior A. H. M. Fouzie said most of their candidates too had submitted their declarations following instructions received from Party General Secretary to do so before the July 30 deadline. “UPFA General Secretary kept a tab on the matter to see that everyone had submitted their assets.
Deputy Elections Commissioner M.M. Mohamed said they are processing the submissions and will soon know who had not complied. However, he said it would be difficult to take any punitive action against any candidate who failed to submit their assets as according to the law a candidate has three months time from the date of nominations.
“We may still not issue them with the election day passes, but we cannot take any action beyond that,” he said.