Summary
States should require that parties present and make public their accounts.
Obligations
Election Parts
Quotes
- States should require political parties regularly, and at least annually, to make public the accounts referred to in Article 11 [consolidated accounts that include those of directly or indirectly related entities] or as a minimum a summary of those accounts, including the information required in Article 10 [records of all direct and indirect expenditures for every candidate, list of candidates and party], as appropriate, and in Article 12 [information regarding all donations received by the party, including the nature and value, with donors of donations over a certain value identified].
- States should require political parties to present the accounts referred to in Article 11 [consolidated accounts that include those of directly or indirectly related entities] regularly, and at least annually, to the independent authority referred to in Article 14 [independent monitoring which includes supervision over the accounts of political parties and campaign expenses].
- The transparency of electoral expenses should be achieved through the publication of campaign accounts.
- Public legislation on disclosure should adopt the following guidelines: Party reports should be disclosed to an official auditing body and to members of the public.
- States should require political parties and candidates to make their full accounts publicly available at regular intervals. At the very least, parties and candidates should present a summary of their accounts, including records of donations and expenditure.
- The financing of political parties through public funds should be on condition that the accounts of political parties shall be subject to control by specific public organs (for example by a Court of Audit). States shall promote a policy of financial transparency of political parties that benefit from public financing.
- Voters should therefore be entitled to know who the financial supporters are of the different political parties and candidates they vote for.
- Reports should be made publicly available without unnecessary delay, and be easy to understand. It is important that the law establish clear and timely deadlines for oversight bodies to publish reports and ensures that they are easily accessible to the public for an extended period of time. It is an increasingly good practice to publish reports on the Internet in a standardized and searchable format, as well as through newspapers with a high circulation. Electoral contestants may also publish their reports directly as an additional measure of transparency.
- Reports should be made publicly available without unnecessary delay, and be easy to understand. It is important that the law establish clear and timely deadlines for oversight bodies to publish reports and ensures that they are easily accessible to the public for an extended period of time. It is an increasingly good practice to publish reports on the Internet in a standardized and searchable format, as well as through newspapers with a high circulation. Electoral contestants may also publish their reports directly as an additional measure of transparency.
- First of all, funding must be transparent; such transparency is essential whatever the level of political and economic development of the country concerned. Transparency operates at two levels. The first concerns campaign funds, the details of which must be set out in a special set of carefully maintained accounts. In the event of significant deviations from the norm or if the statutory expenditure ceilings are exceeded, the election must be annulled. The second level involves monitoring the financial status of elected representatives before and after their term in office. A commission in charge of financial transparency takes formal note of the elected representatives’ statements as to their finances. The latter are confidential, but the records can, if necessary, be forwarded to the public prosecutor’s office.