KABUL (PAN): Eight presidential candidates have been fined on the basis of complaints from the Independent Election Commission (IEC) that they failed to file or presented late their second interim campaign finance reports.

The Electoral Complaints Commissions (ECC) imposed fines on, and issued warnings to, the presidential hopefuls for their failure to submit campaign finance reports to the IEC by the July 18 deadline.

Three of the poll contenders did not submit their reports at all and were fined 20,000 afs each while the rest presented the reports after the deadline had run out. They were fined 5,000 afs each.

Nasrullah Arsalai was fined 70,000, Abdul Hasib Aryan 5,000 afs, Abdul Majid Samim 20,000 afs, Ghulam Mohammad Regei 5,000 afs, Mohammad Nazir Anis 5,000 afs, Ghul Ahmad Yama 20,000 afs, Bashir Ahmad Beijin 5,000 afs and Abdul Ghafur Zari 5,000 afs.

Arsalai was fined an additional 50,000 afs for making derogatory statements regarding the authority of the ECC, The statements were found to be in violation of the Code of Conduct for candidates.

The ECC said in a press release it would continue to monitor the filing of campaign finance reports by the presidential nominees throughout the electoral process.