Sources of their funds for the election have also not been disclosed to the EC, as they did not submit the reports in the last 65 months although the law asks for submission of reports within two months of polls.

The law, introduced before 2001 election, putting a ceiling on election expenditure of contesting electoral parties and laying down guidelines for collection of funds, empowers the EC to take punitive actions for any violation of it.

But the EC has been silent about the matter since the election was over and has not taken any action against the parties for violating the law.

Officials at the EC Secretariat said it has become a dead issue, as the commission has not decided to go further with the matter. They said they had issued a number of circulars after the October 1, 2001 election, asking the contesting political parties to submit their election expenditure returns, but none of them responded to the EC directive within the stipulated 60-day period.

Experts have been observing for long that in absence of strict enforcement of the electoral laws, political parties enjoy a kind of liberty regarding their expenditure during elections, which makes it easier for black money to dominate polls.

Newly appointed Election Commissioner Sohul Hossain also admitted that electoral laws have not been implemented.

"We have excellent laws... But there is no effective monitoring system... Our main problem is that there is no implementation of the laws," the former law secretary, who was appointed as an election commissioner last Sunday, told reporters on Tuesday while talking about reforming electoral laws and policies.

According to the law, each political party must furnish to the EC a separate statement, certified as correct and complete by the party secretary, showing the balance of its funds on the date of declaring an election schedule, the closing balance on the date of completion of the election in all constituencies, and the total amount received by the party, as donations or otherwise, during the period.

Violation of the law is punishable with fines up to Tk10 lakh.

According to the electoral laws, no political party is allowed to spend more than the stipulated amount of money during an election period for election purposes, including the election expenses of its candidates.

If any political party nominates more than 200 candidates, it may spend up to Tk 1.5 crore. If the number of candidates is between 100 and 200, the expenditure limit is up to Tk 1 crore, and if the number is not more than 100, the limit is Tk 75 lakh, the law says.

By showing such indifference to the electoral laws, major political parties have virtually proved their unwillingness to be transparent regarding their election expenditures, election observers said.

Experts said major political parties collect funds and spend crores of taka for winning an election. They take donations from businessmen and nomination-seekers, but there is no transparency in the process, as nobody except the party high command and donors know about the amount of money. Black money is used in elections encouraging corruption in the government.

In the run up to the suspended January 22 parliamentary election, a number of allegations were raised against the two major political parties, AL and BNP, of selling nominations in exchange for large sums of money.