'Parties spend Rs 200 billion on electioneering'

Political parties and candidates contesting today (Monday) election have spent about Rs 200 billion on their electioneering, a private TV channels reported. The report said that almost all candidates taking part in the election have overtopped the maximum election expenditure prescribed by the Election Commissioner of Pakistan.
The estimate was made taking into account the number of election offices opened by political parties and per head expenditure, the money spend on campaign in electronic media and publications and also includes cost of law and order keeping by the federal and provincial governments, the report said. The report maintained that expenditures incurred on this year elections were three times bigger than of previous elections.