Only 7 more days remaining for West Kwaio By-Election Contestants to submit their Election Campaign Expenses
Solomon Islands Electoral Commission made a final call for candidates who had contested the September 15th West Kwaio National Parliamentary By-election to submit Statements of account on their Election Campaign Expenses.
Acting Chief Electoral Officer Mr Fredrick Bosoboe said that, Section 69 of the Electoral Act requires, all candidate contestants in any national parliamentary election must submit his/her statement of account on all election campaign related expenses to the Chief electoral Officer with a given legal period of 90 days.
“The West Kwaio by-election official election result was published on Wednesday 28th September, 2022”, Mr Bosoboe said.
He explained that, this ninety (90) days period commences from the date of official publication of the election result.
Hence, the 90-days legal period is counting from 28th September, 2022 lapsing on Monday 26th December 2022.
“Any candidates contested in the recent West Kwaio By-Election who has not yet submitted his/her statement of election campaign expense, has until 26th December, 2022 to submit, an exactly 7 days from today”, He adds.
The Acting Chief Electoral Officer and Commission said that, in complying to this requirement, each candidate must submit his/her election campaign expense within this 90-day given period”.
“This must include all sources of funds received to support candidate’s election campaign trails, how they have used and what they have used it for”, Mr Bosoboe explained.
“Mr Bosoboe said, failing to submit this election expense account is an election offense carrying a penalty of $20,000 and or 2 years imprisonment,
“Any candidate who continues to fail to submit after the 26th December, 2022 deadline, an addition fine of $100 will be charged each day that he/she fails to submit”, he adds.
To avoid paying accumulation of this $100 unit each day for failing to submit, candidates are encouraged to must submit within this 90-day given period.
As of today, candidates contested in the recent by-election national parliamentary elections have exact Seven (7) days remaining to submit their statement of account of their election campaign expenses.
Note that these election campaign expense accounts must be submitted on a special prescribed approved form that can be collected from Electoral Commission office either in hard or soft copy or can also be downloaded online from Electoral Commission Official Website, www.siec.gov.sb.
There are two forms that will be used to submit these expenses. The first one is for the submission of all the expenses and the second one is the declaration form to certify the integrity of your report. This declaration must be signed by the candidate and attached with the expense report.
If you want to know more on how to go about submitting these candidates’ election campaign expenses, do call Lindsey Indu on Phone 7648766 or send an email to lidu@siec.gov.sb to get a copy of the forms.
For Election Happenings, follow SIEO Facebook @SIelectoralcommission page and website on www.siec.gov.sb Or for general enquiry, you can call the office hotline phone on 7222200 or landline 21198.
END:// SIEO PRESS