DUP fined over 2016 Assembly election campaign

By David Hunter

The DUP has been fined £4,000 for failures in how it reported spending for the 2016 Assembly Election. 

The Electoral Commission says a document failed to include two payments of almost £400 which had to be included. 

Over £49,000 was included in party spending, which should have been attributed to individual candidates. 

The commission says it's happy this figure was a duplicate, and the party insists it's reviewing procedures after paying the penalty. 

The Electoral Commission is the independent body which oversees elections and regulates political finance in the UK.

It works to promote public confidence in the democratic process and ensure its integrity.

On a post on the commission's website it said: "The Democratic Unionist Party has been fined £4,000 as it delivered an inaccurate spending return for the 2016 Northern Ireland Assembly election.

"The return included payments to the value of £49,183.86 which should not have been included, as they were reportable by individual candidates in their own returns.

"The Commission was satisfied however that those payments had been properly reported by the candidates and that their inclusion in the party spending return was duplication.

"The return was also missing two payments to the value of £397.50 which should have been reported.

"The party has informed the Commission that it has reviewed its procedures to prevent a recurrence of these errors."

A DUP spokesman said: "The Electoral Commission has made clear that this was a case of 'duplication'.

"The expenditure in question was mistakenly declared twice - once in the party's central campaign return and then again in the candidates' individual spending returns.

"This error was corrected in an amended campaign expenditure return.

"We regret that these administrative errors led to our election spend being recorded as higher than should have been the case.

"The party has put in place new processes to guard against this in future.

"The fine has been paid in full. The Commission has confirmed this matter is now closed."