Disclosure of funding for political campaigns
Political parties must disclose to the nation and to their members the nature and extent of support they receive from external sources to carry out their campaigns. Such support could lead to state capture.
There is no shortage of financiers with personal, corporate, partisan and/or shady external interests who are willing to provide financial support to political parties and their candidates, especially during political campaigns. As such, political parties and candidates for elective positions in government have a civic and moral obligation to disclose the names of individuals, organizations and/or countries providing them with financial and/or material support.
It may not really matter whether or not there is a law requiring political parties and their candidates to disclose the main sources of their funds; any well-meaning political party or candidate that wishes to serve our beloved country and its people should oblige if and when requested to provide such information. There is a need for political parties and their candidates seeking to form government not to be arrogant or stubborn in their handling of this matter.
Voters may wish to know the sources of huge amounts of material and/or financial assistance rendered exclusively to any political party or candidate for use during political campaigns.
This should be a reasonable expectation considering the potential for such assistance to lead to what is referred to in the literature as “state capture”— that is, a situation that obtains when a powerful organization exerts undue influence (often through illicit means) on its host country’s state institutions, laws, regulations, and/or policies. Or, in other words, the extent to which organizations make illicit and non-transparent private payments to public officials in order to influence the generation of laws, rules, regulations, or decrees by government leaders or institutions.
Ultimately, “state capture” can lead to the initiation of projects and programs, and the generation of socioeconomic policies, that are in the best interests of external parties providing campaign funds in contravention of the interests of our beloved country and its people.
* Henry Kyambalesa, is a Zambian academic currently living in the City and County of Denver in the State of Colorado, USA.
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