KUALA LUMPUR, March 2 — Election laws dictate that the Election Commission (EC) has the power to compel candidates to disclose how much of their campaign funds came from their respective political parties, polls reform group Bersih 2.0 said.
Maria Chin Abdullah, the group’s chairman, said the election regulator cannot shirk its responsibilities by saying it only has power to monitor the campaign expenses of individual candidates.
“EC can’t say political parties’ expenses is not under their purview. Under S15-15A (of the Election Offences Act) when scrutinising the submission of accounts, EC can ask questions like what part of the expenses comes from political parties?” she told Malay Mail Online when contacted.
Chin was responding to EC chairman Datuk Seri Hashim Abdullah’s statement last week that investigating how much political parties spend during elections is beyond the commission’s purview and control.
Section 15 stipulates that the election expenses of a candidate must be made either by the candidate or through his or her election agent and that any money for the polls must be paid either directly to the candidate or to his or her agent.
Section 15A among other things prohibits the spending of money on rallies and advertisements during the campaign period by any person other than the candidate, his election agent or those authorised by his election agent.
The EC chief, in an interview with Malay Mail Online, had said that the commission only monitors how much individual candidates spend during the campaign period but not what their respective parties fork out “because we don’t know whether a political party uses all of its funds for elections”.
He pointed out that the only law on political financing in Malaysia is the Election Offences Act 1954, which imposes spending caps on individual candidates under Section 19 – RM100,000 is the limit for those contesting state seats while those fighting for parliamentary seats can spend up to RM200,000.
The section does not, however, mention spending caps on political parties.
Chin, however, insisted that the lack of a spending limit on political parties in the Act shows there are “flaws within the laws”.
“We want the EC to reform the Act and look at political parties as well as at the candidates,” she said, agreeing that the commission needs to be given more powers, including the power to “monitor and demand political parties to report to them”.
Beyond introducing legal changes to allow the EC to scrutinise how much parties spend for campaigns, both the parties and the candidates should be compelled to publicly disclose their campaign expenditure instead of merely passing the figures on to the EC, she said.
“I think it needs to happen for transparency and for accountability for political parties and also candidates to declare their accounts to the public, at the moment, it’s only limited to candidates,” she said.
Chin said Bersih 2.0 had through the 70-odd-member Coalition for Political Financing Reforms submitted a proposal for reforms on political financing to the government.
The coalition, she said, had suggested the introduction of a new law called the Political Parties Act, which covers governance of political financing, limits on political funding and contribution, limits on political expenditure, access into funding, reporting requirements, regulation of financing for party elections and guidelines for a caretaker government, she said.
Stressing the importance of transparent political financing in levelling the playing field for election candidates, Chin said the EC has to be proactive and support the proposed Political Parties Act.
“Only then can we curb the excessive funds used, vote-buying and corruption in elections,” she said.
The EC is part of the government’s Consultative Committee on Political Funding, which was announced by the prime minister last August 14 to gather input for a law to regulate political funding.
