For the first time in the country's electoral history, candidates trying their luck at the hustings will be aided by ‘expenditure agents' as the Election Commission recently notified their inclusion to keep track of all poll-related expenses of candidates. The EC had made the changes in the Representation of the Peoples Act to include this new entity into the election charter, as part of the slew of new measures it has introduced to curb the use of black money in elections.

“An expenditure agent, however, is not mandatory for a candidate. A candidate may or may not choose to keep such an aide,” sources said. The decision was taken by the EC after representatives of political parties met the Commission here and requested it for inclusion of one more agent, apart from the polling agent, who can exclusively look after all the work related to poll expenditure of a candidate fighting Parliamentary or Assembly elections.

The EC will soon notify the order and send it to all recognised national and state political parties and the Chief Election Commissioners of states. “The EC has brought out a slew of measures for election expenditure since last year. Candidates now have to maintain exclusive shadow registers and keep updating them regularly. They also have to keep a track of all minute details when it comes to expenditure related to elections.

The representatives of political parties, hence, asked the EC to allow them to appoint a person to perform all these heavy duty tasks, which the EC has now agreed to,” sources said.

The candidate will have to authorise his ‘expenditure agent' through a notarised affidavit and inform the same to the Returning Officer of his constituency.

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