Kathmandu, March 10 -- The finances of Nepal's political parties have always been murky. The public largely tends to assume that there are billions in dealings, primarily because the parties tend to be exceedingly opaque when it comes to their finances and how they are mobilised, especially during elections.

Three years after the last elections, there is a persistent perception that 'honest people' cannot contest elections, given the massive sums of money that are spent.

In the last election, despite the Election Commission placing a ceiling of Rs2.5 million on election expenditure, parties' spending is believed to have run into the billions.

Confronted with this massive mobilisation of funds in order to contest polls, the Election Com...