The Election Commission has written to the Finance Ministry for a review after it made a major cut in the estimated budget requested for the House of Representatives elections. The commission has expressed dissatisfaction saying that the Ministry of Finance has made arbitrary cuts without consulting them.

The Commission has requested a budget of Rs 7.81 billion for the election, but the Finance Ministry has approved only Rs 4.96 billion. The Finance Ministry has cut the requested budget by almost 40 percent. The Commission had requested a budget on 7 Kartik by estimating the expenditure under 49 different headings. The Commission says that the budget was requested after analyzing the expenditure of previous elections. However, the Ministry has reduced the estimated budget under every heading. The budget has not been allocated under some headings.

An official of the Commission said that after the Finance Ministry approved the budget by reducing it by more than the requested amount, there is a problem in adjusting the budget under the headings. ‘We have requested it to be frugal.’ However, it has been approved with a large reduction,’ said the official. ‘Even after approval, the Commission would have returned the unspent amount tomorrow. It has done so in the past. However, the cuts made by the government in the name of frugality at the beginning make it difficult for the Commission to work. It is not appropriate for the Constitutional Body Commission to keep writing to the government for the budget again and again.'

The officials or employees of the Commission have not wanted to open their mouths formally regarding the budget. The officials of the Commission have already lodged their complaints with the Prime Minister, Home Minister and Finance Minister. 'The Finance Minister has assured that you will get insufficient funds if you keep spending,' said a Commission source, 'but it is not good to be in a position to repeatedly appeal to the government for the budget during the election period.'

The Commission has not yet been able to pay the prescribed allowance to the employees deployed across the country in the compilation of voter lists since 9 Asoj. That too should be paid from the budget allocated for election purposes. In the past, the compilation of voter lists used to be stopped after the election was announced. This time, that work has been added.

The Commission had demanded a budget of 320 million for election publicity and voter education programs. However, the Finance Ministry has approved 50 million. Of the 210 million demanded for training for election staff, 60 million have been given. The budget has been reduced for all the headings including printing ballot papers, purchasing supplies, transporting materials, lunch expenses for security personnel deployed at election centers, daily allowances and volunteer expenses for employees deployed at polling centers, facilities for employees deployed at vote counting, and collection of ballot boxes.

The Ministry of Finance has also increased the number of ballot papers to be counted in one shift and reduced the facilities for employees deployed at the count. The commission had proposed that 3,000 votes would be counted in one shift for direct elections and 1,500 votes for proportional elections, and accordingly, the employees deployed at the count would be paid according to the shift. The Ministry of Finance has said that the number of ballot papers to be counted in one shift for direct elections would be 3,500 and 2,000 for proportional elections. This may delay the counting process.

A commissioner said that the Ministry of Finance interfered in the work of determining the commission. ‘How many ballot papers should be counted in one shift?’ It is the job of the commission to determine that number,’ he said. ‘However, in the name of cutting the budget, money has interfered in that too.’ The Ministry of Finance has written ‘frugality’ in the caption of every budget cut. The commission officials say that just writing that much does not justify the budget cut.