A joint preliminary election observation report has indicated a lack of transparency in election expenditure of candidates in the elections to the House of Representatives (HoR) held on March 5. 

The joint preliminary election observation report of the National Election Observation Committee (NEOC) and Election Observation Committee (EOC) Nepal mentioned that there is a large difference in a legal limit and actual expenditure spent in election campaigns. 

Tens of millions of rupees was found spent in the election campaign against the expenditure ceiling set by the Election Commission for candidates, reads the report.

At a press conference organized today, NEOC Chairperson Dr Gopal Krishna Siwakoti shared that the detailed report about election expenditure would be released soon.

As per the geographical territory for a candidate towards first-past-the-post election system, expenditure ceiling of maximum Rs 3.3 million was determined while around Rs 200,000 expenditure ceiling was set for a candidate towards proportional representation election system.

Chairperson Dr Siwakoti added that the expenditure spent by candidates in high-profile election constituencies was found to be more than the expenditure ceiling determined by the EC. 

Similarly, increasing reliance on digital publicity has become a challenge for the transparency of election expenditure, added the report. 

After the registration of candidacy, the demand of social media managers, content creators and digital publicity service had remarkably increased and tens of thousands rupees were spent for such services and such spending were not included in election expenditure, according to the report. 

The EC had collaborated with social platforms like Meta and TikTok for monitoring of digital publicity.  

The report added that the advertisement expenditure on social media is more opaque, said EOC Nepal Chairperson, Advocate Srikrishna Subedi.