By EDDIE OSIFELO
THE Electoral Commission has agreed in its meeting on Monday for police to go after candidates who have not submitted their 2019 National General Election (NGE) campaign Statements of Account.
Only 100 of the 332 candidates have submitted their statements of account.
232 candidates failed to submit their statements at the deadline on July 20.
Besides, six candidates have submitted their statements of account but were in-complete and did not meet the requirement of the Act.
Chief Electoral Officer, Mose Saitala said it is a requirement under the electoral law (Section 69 of the Electoral Act 2018) that all candidates, successful and unsuccessful, must file their Statement of Account 90 days after the publication of election results.
All election results were published on April 19.
Saitala said failure to complete and file a Statement of Account in the approved Form provided under Regulation 9A of the Electoral (Amendment) Regulations 2019, carries a penalty of $20,000 or two years imprisonment or both.
He said a $100 fine will also be imposed on a daily basis after the lapse of the due date (July 20), on top of the above penalty, for candidates who failed to meet the deadline.
“If a candidate wants to reduce the daily $100 fine, they can still submit their statement of account after the due date, but that does not prevent a candidate from prosecution.
“Late submissions only reduce the $100 daily fine according to the number of days the candidate made the late submission, but he/she will still be prosecuted and penalised,” said SIEC’s CEO.
