By Lincoln G. Peters
Integrity Watch Liberia through its Strengthening Political Accountability Project (SPAP) has cataloged 1,333 campaign violations by political parties in the just-ended presidential and legislative elections.
On Friday, 27 October 2023, Integrity Watch Liberia in partnership with the National Elections Commission (EC) presented its findings on political parties’ campaign finance regulations.
The Strengthening Political Accountability Project brought together stakeholders from the diplomatic Corps, Civil Society as well and the Press Union of Liberia with a focus on handling breaches of NEC’s political parties’ campaign finance regulations.
Making a brief PowerPoint presentation on the finding, Integrity Watch Liberia Executive Director Mr. Harold Aidoo, Sr., said the report cut across political parties, actors, and institutions on their adherence to the NEC campaign finance regulations and the Elections Law.
According to him, due to the voluminous capacity of the documents, he will present a brief PowerPoint presentation on the data and some of the violations of the political parties.
“We have found out one thousand three hundred and thirty-three campaign violations. We recruited data collectors from civil society, and journalists from across the country,” Aidoo said.
“We look at the indicators surrounding political campaign finance regulations. We looked at candidates who were contesting, political parties. We found out that there was abuse of public facilitates, and youth by government officials,” he noted.
[bsa_pro_ad_space id=1]
Also, he added that political parties violated the laws but most of the regulations were violated by the Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) which is the governing party.
“All the political parties refused to show and disclose their sources of income or funding for the campaign. This happened across the board. It was not unique to a particular political party,” he continued.
He noted that parties failed to disclose how they got their money and how they are spending it, adding that they also failed to disclose the filing of their reports.
“This also happened to independent candidates” he concluded.
Earlier, United Nations Resident Coordinator to Liberia Christine Umutoni extolled the Integrity Watch Liberia for the comprehensive report, adding that campaign finance regulations should be adhered to.
“Campaign finance regulation sets the agenda for accountability and transparency during elections. This also provides a level-playing field for all actors,” the UN Envoy said.
For his part, the NEC Political Affairs Director Mr. Ignatius B. Weseeh said that Liberia’s electoral system calls for accountability.
Mr. Wesseh said the gathering focused on the report and the respect for the campaign finance regulations by the NEC and political parties, particularly with enforcing compliance.
“We will have 25 25-minute panel conversation on the role of the NEC in enforcing compliance with the campaign finance regulations.”
