PETALING JAYA: The Coalition for Clean and Fair Elections (Bersih 2.0) urges the government to amend the Election Offences Act 1954 (EOA) to include a regulation on political donations to political parties and candidates.
Its steering committee said the EOA must be amended and a new law on political financing enacted to regulate these two key areas of political financing.
It said the government should table the political financing bill as soon as possible and allow all stakeholders to give their views and suggestions during the Parliamentary Select Committee’s hearing.
“The EOA 1954 only regulates campaign spending by candidates during election campaigns. There is no regulation on donations to political parties and candidates,” Bersih said in a statement. ”Unregulated political financing not only enables loopholes for bribery and undue influence by interest groups, but also undermines public confidence in the integrity of elections.”
Bersih was responding to the testimony of former Barisan Nasional secretary-general Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor in the High Court, where he revealed how Umno raised funds for election campaigns through political donations.
“While we do not suggest that his testimony exempts him from the corruption charge, it does show how vast sums of monies are raised and spent in elections,” Bersih said.
It suggested that contributions of funds above RM1,000 to political parties and candidates, both in cash and in kind, must be declared and that public funding for political parties should also be introduced to help reduce the reliance on private sources of funding, particularly the wealthy and corporate interest groups.
“The limit should apply at all times and on all types of donors including individual and corporate, both local and foreign.
“However, government-linked companies (GLC) as custodians of public wealth should be barred from donating to political parties or be involved in political activities,” it added.
Bersih also proposes that the spending limit of funds in political campaigns should be increased from RM100,000 to RM500,000 for a state assembly candidate and from RM200,000 to RM1 million for parliamentary candidates.
“All candidates should be required to submit their income and expenses report for election campaign with supporting documents, and these should be audited and published for public scrutiny by the Election Commission (EC) to enhance transparency and accountability.
“Such reforms on political financing need also to be accompanied by reforms to the EC to ensure that they are empowered to enforce election laws and enforce them impartially,” Bersih added.
