Mozambican political parties must disclose sources of funding – NGO

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Mozambican political parties must disclose sources of funding – NGO

7:31 CAT | 04 May 2021

Image: EISA Mozambique

The Electoral Institute for Sustainable Democracy in Africa (EISA) has said that, in the interests of transparency, Mozambican political parties should disclose their sources of funding.

In the interests of transparency, “not only must the source of funding be known; it is also important to map the interests behind the financing”, an analysis entitled “Who do they benefit, the political parties made viable by politician investors? [ A quem beneficiam os partidos políticos viabilizados por políticos investidores?] released on Friday by the EISA claims. [The full report, in Portuguese, may be found HERE]

Lack of transparency in the financing of political parties can create conditions for “the capture of political space by economic groups”, it adds.

Referring to the financing of electoral campaigns, the EISA notes that unequal access to resources by political parties is one of the factors of electoral injustice, possibly financing irregularities such as the purchasing of votes.

“Campaign financing must be aligned with a desire to make political players more responsible,” the text reads.

In the EISA’s opinion, a candidate elected through a corrupt electoral process will be more likely to reproduce bad practices in the management of public resources.

The analysis, by EISA researcher Egídio Guambe, points out that Mozambican political parties have not published their accounts, in violation of the law.

“Political parties should not function as isolated islands, self-sustaining, and without any accountability mechanisms,” the text reads. Political organizations must establish coherent systems of financial auditing, especially in electoral periods, the study urges.

Such openness would allow parties to protect themselves from practices such as influence peddling and instrumentalisation for purposes contrary to the public interest.

Noting that Mozambique is grappling with armed violence in both its central and northern regions, the EISA says that knowing the origin of political funding and the purpose for which it is intended would also be a way of preventing resources being channelled to fuel conflicts.

“In the context of the exacerbation of military conflicts, it is important that the legal framework for financing political parties increasingly encourages the transparency of sources, the amounts and the use of resources, [mitigating against] the risk that they will reproduce fertile spaces for financing conflicts,” the EISA analysis says.