COLOMBO – A collective of election monitoring organizations has called on the government to engage in a consultative process with the public on formulating election campaign regulations, warning that a weak regulatory system, such as the one listed for its second reading in Parliament, can lead to a further deterioration of people’s trust in politics and the legitimacy of the electoral process, and not achieve the objectives of introducing such a law.

The proposed law, titled ‘Regulation of Election Expenditure Bill’, was gazetted on November 29, 2022, and has been listed for its Second Reading in Parliament.

The collective, comprising Transparency International Sri Lanka (TISL), People’s Action for Free and Fair Elections (PAFFREL), the Centre for Monitoring Election Violence (CMEV) and Institute for Democratic Reforms and Electoral Studies (IRES), which for several years been campaigning for the enactment of a strong law to regulate the role of money in election campaigns, has deemed the bill to be woefully inadequate to effectively regulate election campaign financing.

In a statement issued on Wednesday (18), the collective emphasized that a law which seeks to regulate election campaign financing should prevent undue influence of donors over candidates, parties and independent groups, create a level playing field for all candidates including new entrants and underrepresented groups and reduce excessive and illegal spending on elections including by means such as the misuse of public funds and vote-buying. To be effective, the law should also provide for a robust monitoring and enforcement mechanism by both the authorities and citizens, it added, noting that the Bill as gazetted on November 29, 2022, was woefully inadequate to serve these purposes.

The Bill bans campaign contributions from certain parties such as foreign governments, corporate bodies registered outside Sri Lanka, companies with foreign shareholding and anonymous donors. However, it does not impose any limit on how much funding a candidate, party or independent group can receive from any source, allowing space for undue influence, the collective said.

It also noted that though the Bill foresees the designation of an authorized amount as the spending limit for a candidate at each election, the amount has not been considered with sufficient detail. “It also does not set out an adequate monitoring mechanism. It does not prevent spending by political parties and third parties, on candidates. As such, the proposed spending limit will only defeat the purpose of introducing this law,” the collective warned.

The proposed procedure to enforce spending limits, is also inadequate, the collective said, pointing out that it only provides that candidates should submit audited accounts to the Election Commission of Sri Lanka (ECSL), who will notify the public of their availability for perusal.

An effective law, the collective said, would require maintenance and disclosure of all separate accounts of candidates, parties or independent groups to the ECSL, and would also make such information digitally accessible to the public, enabling easy scrutiny, and an opportunity to digitally identify irregularities.

When the Bill was placed on the Order Paper of Parliament, it was challenged before the Supreme Court, but the Determination of the Court is not yet publicly available.

While re-emphasizing the critical need for election campaign financing regulation in Sri Lanka, the collective of election monitoring organizations also called upon the government to close the loopholes in the Bill and to engage in a consultative process with the public, without rushing its passage in Parliament. It also reiterated that the introduction of a campaign financing law should in no instance be used as a reason to delay the holding of the local government elections.

-ENCL