Salutations
- The Political Parties Presidents present.
- Political parties Secretary General Present.
- Representatives of Cooperating Partners.
- Executive Director ZCID.
- Civil Society Representatives.
- Senior Program Staff TI-Z .
- Members of the Press .
- Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen.
I am greatly honoured to have this opportunity to make a few remarks on the very pertinent issue of political party and campaign financing, which TI-Z considers to be a key political governance issue requiring attention by all stakeholders. In line with our mandate of fighting corruption and advocating for good governance in Zambia, TI-Z recognizes the importance of collaboration and consented effort by different stakeholders including public, civil society, the private sector and communities, if our quest for improved political governance is to succeed. It is for this reason that we have taken the deliberate approach of engaging with a range of stakeholders in order to leverage on their expertise, experience, influence and skill.
Ladies and Gentlemen. Today, it is almost inconceivable to have a functioning democracy without political parties. Political parties play several important roles in society, such as articulating citizens’ interests; developing competing policy proposals that provide voice and choice; selecting candidates for elected office; mobilizing members of the legislature; conducting electoral campaigns; and providing alternative governance solutions and approaches to the party in power.
As complex organizations that are at the heart of democracy, political parties require financial resources to perform these functions. True as this is, political financing has, over the recent past, proved a challenge all over the world, in so far as transparency is concerned. Recent studies show that countries that adopted political finance regulations since 2003 have more than doubled (approximately 140) but less than half of them effectively publish political finance data. A survey of 480 elections in 169 countries since 2012 identifies political financing as its most conspicuous integrity problem[1]. It can be deduced from this that the lack of transparency of political financing processes and mechanisms distorts the democratic process. In fact, Transparency International in its analysis of the 2018 Corruption Perceptions Index, highlights that over the past two decades, there has been democratic backsliding across the world due to a large part to the lack of transparency surrounding political financing. Further, in the Freedom of the World report of 2021, Freedom House contended that
“Democracy was under siege” and consequently, the impact of the long-term democratic decline has become increasingly global in nature and has partly been attributed to political capture by private and individual interest, which has found its way in political governance through political financing.
Ladies and gentlemen. As we all know, political leaders are elected and entrusted with power to represent the interests of the general public. These leaders are expected to act with political integrity, which Transparency International refers to as politicians exercising political power consistently in the public interest, independent from private interests. Political integrity entails not using power to maintain the office holders’ and elected politicians’ own interests and positions. This is in cognizance that money in politics is a growing challenge for many democracies. A common avenue for money to enter politics, besides direct bribes paid to senior officials, is through the financing of political parties, some of which is directed at vote buying and abuse of state resources for electoral purposes.
Political financing in form of big money from the private sector, if not well regulated, has the potential to skew future policy decisions away from public interest. As the
Center for Responsive Politics indicates – “a campaign contribution may carry an expectation that the money will get repaid in the form of favourable legislation, less stringent regulations, political appointments, government contracts or tax credits-to name a few forms of payback”. The 2019 CPI notes that corruption is more pervasive in countries where big money can flow freely into electoral campaigns and where governments listen only to the voices of wealthy or well-connected individuals. TI therefore states that governments must urgently address the corrupting role of big money in political party financing and the undue influence it exerts on political systems. Keeping big money out of politics is essential to ensure political decision-making serves the public interest and curbs opportunities for corruption. Therefore, to have any chance of ending corruption and improving peoples’ lives, we must tackle the relationship between politics and big money to ensure that all citizens are represented in decision-making.
Ladies and gentlemen. As we all know, Zambia does not have a legal framework on political party and election campaign financing, and this has given latitude to political parties to source funds even from questionable sources. This is contrary to the expectation of the African Union Convention on Preventing and Combating Corruption, which Zambia is a signatory to, which requires State Parties to incorporate the principle of transparency into political party funding. Additionally, there is no obligation for political parties in Zambia to disclose their sources of funding. Therefore, political parties are free to look for finances from any source and are not required to submit audited reports to any government agency, apart from the time when the political party is being registered by the Registrar of Societies.
There have been attempts in Zambia to legislate political party financing in the past, with the last one being in 2003 when Parliament passed a Political Party Financing Bill. Unfortunately, the then Republican President, Levy Mwanawasa, refused to assent the Bill into law on the basis that the country had no financial capacity to sponsor political parties.
In response to the challenge of there being no regulatory framework for political party and campaign financing, TI-Z has embarked on mobilizing political parties and creating platforms for them to engage over the possibility of pushing for political party and campaign financing legislation. Against this background, TI-Z is calling for reforms in this area, so that political parties are more transparent and accountable in the way they receive and spend finances, as this will foster transparency, accountability and integrity in the management of elections and promotion of an accountable democratic dispensation. Our ultimate hope is that Zambia will enact a law that will explicitly regulate and prescribe the following, among other aspects:
- Disclosure and reporting of financial contributions to political parties on a periodic basis before, during and after elections;
- Periodic publication of financial reports by political parties;
- Disclosure and reporting of non-cash contributions to political parties – such as donations of goods and services – based on their economic value;
- Ceiling on contributions by individual persons, corporations and organizations to political parties;
- Ceiling on overall contributions to and expenditures by political parties;
- Establishment of a special elections campaign fund to support eligible political parties; and
- Submission of audited financial reports by political parties, to be reviewed by the electoral or other regulatory authorities.
Ladies and gentlemen. As I conclude, a complete transparency of the financing of political parties should be ensured with a view to avoiding any potentially undesirable influence of money on party politics and policy, which then compromises political governance and politicians’ commitment to the electorate and citizens in general. This therefore calls for the enactment of legislation to regulate political party and campaign financing in Zambia.
It is our hope that through engagements such as the one we are having today, we will be able to draw on each others’ experience and expertise in order to advance this cause. We owe it to posterity to make sure that we create a democratic dispensation that is free of corruption in all its forms, and we have no doubt that you will walk this journey with us.
I thank you for your attention, and may the Almighty God bless us all.
[1] As assessed by the Electoral Integrity Project, covering 480 elections in 169 countries between 2012 and 2021, in: Electoral
Integrity Project 2022, Electoral Integrity Global Report 2019-2021, p. 13. Available on: https://www.electoralintegrityproject.com/reports (last accessed 13 July 2022)
