Thiruvananthapuram: The State Election Commission has disqualified 8,750 candidates who contested the elections to various local bodies in November 2015. State Election Commissioner V. Bhaskaran said in a statement here on Wednesday that these persons were disqualified for not submitting the details of the election expenses or for exceeding the set limit of such expenses. The disqualification under section 33 of the Kerala Panchayat Raj Act and section 89 of the Kerala Municipality Act is for five years from December 20, 2017.
They cannot contest the bypolls to the local bodies, general elections of 2020 or any other byelections till 2022. The officials concerned will have to issue new notification about the vacancies arising out of the disqualification. The maximum amount allowed as election expenses is Rs 10,000 for grama panchayat, Rs 30,000 for block panchayat and Rs 60,000 for district panchayat.
Those contesting municipality elections and municipal corporation elections can spend a maximum of Rs 30,000 and Rs 60,000 respectively. The highest number of those disqualified-- 1031-- is from Ernakulam and lowest from Wayanad--161. In Malappuram which has the highest number of 122 local bodies, 972 persons were disqualified. The details are available on the website www.secc.kerala.gov.in.
