Genuine transparency of the electoral process

Who finances the political campaigns and what are their intentions?

José Carlos Zamora

Until now the funding of political parties and their candidates has been undisclosed. This has made them susceptible to receiving funds that come from criminal activities or in the best scenario of interest groups that expect to receive something in exchange for their financial support. Issue that should concern all Guatemalans, given that the secrecy has been exploited by unscrupulous people who have led politics to being a partisan and rent seeking activity, instead of a mean to reach the common good and the public interest. Making campaign finance public is the only way we will be able to make sure that elected candidates pursue the common good and not special or personal interests.

Last week the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (SET) approved the regulation that complements the Political Parties and Electoral Law. This new regulation will allow the electoral process to be more transparent, given that it will allow the SET to control the finances of the parties, organizations and individuals who take part in the political process, making them establish clearly the origin of their sources of funding and setting limits to the donations that can be made to their campaigns.

The approval of this regulation is commendable work from part of the SET, but it should not stay in the consent of having established the new statutory system. To make this initiative a real success the SET must make sure and guarantee to make totally public and of easy access to the population all the financial information they gather about the political parties and their campaigns.

Until know the SET is on the right track, but to comply with its mandate it must receive the necessary funds to accomplish its mission. Reason why it is imperative that nine months short of the elections, Congress grants the SET its corresponding budget.

Political parties themselves, both in and out of Congress must support the efforts of the SET to make the electoral process more transparent, because by supporting this efforts they will not only be helping to strengthen our electoral system, but they will also be able to protect the integrity of their candidates and their parties.

Supporting the transparency of our electoral process and the political activity is a mechanism that the SET, Congress, the political parties and their candidates have at hand to fight abstetionism, the apathy of the electorate and achieve active citizen participation in the political process and in its scrutiny by which we will be able to achieve the establishment of a real, true and effective democracy.