3619 Results
Quotes
Quotes based on international documents, law, and treaties- "The independent monitoring should include supervision over the accounts of political parties and the expenses involved in election campaigns as well as their presentation and publication."
- "Ensure that the financing of political groupings and regional elections is not only subject to traditional parliamentary scrutiny but is also monitored by an independent body such as a court of auditors."
- "States should establish independent auditing bodies endowed with sufficient powers to supervise the accounts of political parties and the expenses linked to electoral campaigns."
- "Electoral campaign accounts will be submitted to the organ charged with supervising election procedures, for example, an election committee, within a reasonable time limit after the elections."
- "The ideal requirements for political finance regulation in post-conflict societies listed below should be viewed as goals for the international community to achieve given the challenging constraints in which they are operating. There are three key requirements in the areas of legal framework, resources for political actors and institutions....3. Effective institutions and processes for enforcement of political finance regulation, including: As noted above, a nonpartisan, independent institution responsible for enforcement of political finance regulations with sufficient authority, training and resources to perform enforcement responsibilities."
- "It is usual that the EMB has responsibility for supervising and enforcing campaign finance regulations."
- "Regulatory agencies must be independent in terms of appointments, security of tenure and funding, and should themselves be independently supervised."
- "To this effect, party financing legislation should include stipulations regulating at least four distinct aspects relating to the transparency of political finance: Monitoring: provisions for an independent body to inspect and control party accounts."
- "Independent monitoring should include supervision over the accounts of political parties regarding their regular sources of income and expenditure, their routine operational costs as well as their election expenses."
- "States should provide for independent monitoring of the funding of political parties and electoral campaigns. Political parties and candidates should be required to present regular accounts to an independent authority."
- "Political parties and candidates should account to the EMB for the use of such [public] resources."
- "The legal framework should require periodic reporting at reasonable intervals of all contributions received and expenditure incurred by an electoral contestant."
- "Campaign costs can include salaries, transportation, office expenses, the purchase of print and electronic media, and the printing and distribution of campaign materials."
- "The legal framework should specifically identify the agency responsible for receiving and maintaining campaign contribution and expenditure reports. The legal framework should clearly specify where and when such reports are available for public inspection."
- "It is a good practice to require both pre- and post-election disclosure of campaign spending."
- "[The Electoral Commission] should be empowered to ensure that proper election expense returns are submitted on time, to inspect party accounts, and for parties to have properly audited and verified accounts."
- "The auditing commission membership should be multiparty and include minority parties and members of the opposition."
- "Commissioners should not be eligible for re-appointment; those holding lifetime or one-term appointments are the least likely to be influenced by partisan interests."
- "Furthermore, there should be no budgetary strings attached which curtail the powers and restrict the scope of activities of the controlling commission should it criticize the government or major political parties. The auditing commission should be free from political pressure in carrying out its activities, and should be free from party intervention when appointing its staff."
- "The regulatory authority must have adequate powers to supervise and investigate accounts and to refer irregularities to the criminal justice authorities."
- "In order to be effective, the regulatory body must also have the autonomous capacity to seek out violations."
- "The regulatory body must respect human rights, particularly the rights to due process and rights to be found in international and regional humans rights conventions."
- "The regulatory body should provide accessible information, produced in a timely manner and published on the Internet."
- "With regard to the monitoring agency, legislation on political finance should determine: the procedure for appointment of its members, including their term of office and safeguards for their independence."
- "With regard to the monitoring agency, legislation on political finance should determine: the definition of their specific powers and activities, such as the interpretation of relevant laws, the checking and publishing of party accounts, the publication of reports, the investigation of suspected violations of the law or the application of sanctions."
- "With regard to the monitoring agency, legislation on political finance should determine: the types of breaches of the law to be sanctioned and the specific sanctions to be applied for different types of violations."
- "The regulatory body itself should be subject to legal accountability, either through administrative law or by other means."
- "With regard to the monitoring agency, legislation on political finance should determine: the procedures for appeals against decisions of the agency."
- "A deadline should be set by the electoral law, after which the validity of candidatures may no longer be challenged...The time-frame for the verification process of the candidatures should be adjusted accordingly."
- "The structures of legal frameworks should be unambiguous, understandable and transparent. They should address all components of the system of party and candidate financing necessary to ensure democratic participation and competition between parties."
- "The ideal requirements for political finance regulation in post-conflict societies listed below should be viewed as goals for the international community to achieve given the challenging constraints in which they are operating. There are three key requirements in the areas of legal framework, resources for political actors and institutions...1. A legal framework for political finance regulation—contained in the electoral law, the political parties law or a separate political finance law—should include: Provisions that are clear, simple and unambiguous and supplemented by implementing regulations issued by the election management body or special body for political finance regulation."
- "Legislation should be stated in clear and unambiguous language."
- "Legislation should avoid conflicting provisions between laws governing the activities of political parties and laws governing their financial activities."
- "Legislation should avoid conflicting provisions between laws governing the financing of national and sub-national parties, and between laws governing the financing of national and sub-national election campaigns."
- "Legislation on party financing should at least cover fundamental issues such as traditional sources of finance, private donations, public subsidies to political parties, the financing of election campaigns and provisions for disclosure, reporting, monitoring and enforcement."
- "Legislation should be published and made readily available for the intended users, including political parties, candidates for public office and the general public."
- "Voter registration is vital to the public's interest in establishing a government based on the people's will and is also vital to those who seek to gain public office."
- "The universal right "to take part in" government is directly affected by the eligibility/voter registration process."
- "Except in elections in which no voters' list is compiled (and voting allowed on the base of an I.D. or other documents), Voter registration is crucial for the factors of universality and equality."
- "The election system must provide a mechanism for registering voters. The right to vote cannot be secured if it is not possible to determine efficiently who is eligible and therefore allowed to vote in an election."
- "Where registration of voters is required, it should be facilitated and obstacles to such registration should not be imposed."
- "The registration system should be designed to enable every eligible voter to cast a ballot."
- "Every elector has the opportunity to record his or her vote freely and without fear; ensuring that there are no abnormal limitations upon the franchise or obstacles to registration or to voting."
- "The voter registration process should promote broad participation and should not inhibit the participation of eligible voters… Cost effective voter identification protocols should be established to enable the maximum possible inclusion of eligible voters, while minimizing multiple or illegal voter registration."
- "The right to vote is violated if the legal framework makes it difficult for a person to register to vote, as normally a person who is not registered cannot legally vote."
- "All citizens of the country should have the right to…be registered as voters on equal terms."
- "Universal suffrage requires that the broadest reasonable pool of voters is guaranteed participatory rights."
- "Procedures should accommodate broad participation and should not crate unnecessary technical barriers to participation by otherwise qualified persons. For instance, advance registration should be allowed for those who will reach the minimum voting age by election day, but after the close of registration."
- "States must take effective measures to ensure that all persons entitled to vote are able to exercise that right. Where registration of voters is required, it should be facilitated and obstacles to such registration should not be imposed. If residence requirements apply to registration, they must be reasonable, and should not be imposed in such a way as to exclude the homeless from the right to vote. Any abusive interference with registration or voting as well as intimidation or coercion of voters should be prohibited by penal laws and those laws should be strictly enforced."
- "...[C]ommon problems associated with voter registration: [include] procedures that cause unreasonable difficulty for certain sectors of the population to register or obtain the identification card necessary for voting, including: limiting hours or days for registration; placing registration sites at inconvenient locations; levying fees; conducting literacy exams; or subjecting registrants to unfairly burdensome procedures such as presenting multiple identification cards or photographs, making multiple visits to the registration site, etc."