Stemming from its belief that the integrity of the electoral process is linked to a large extent to the transparency of its funding sources and legitimacy of expenditures, the Coalition for Integrity and Accountability-AMAN held a press conference to declare the signing of a code of conduct (Code) specifically developed for the Palestinian political parties, factions, and other political powers on electoral campaigns’ funding. The conference was held on Monday, November 7, 2016 at the Palestinian Red Crescent Headquarters in Ramallah and Gaza.
Signatories of the Code included representatives of the following political parties and factions: The Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the Palestinian People’s Party, The Palestine Democratic Union-FIDA, Palestine Liberation Front, Palestinian Arab Front, the Palestinian Popular Struggle Front, Watan Movement and Vanguards of the People’s Liberation War- Al-Saiqa.
The Code included provisions that obligate signatory parties to work according to ethical principles and rules that ensure integrity and transparency of elections in terms of:
Legitimacy of electoral funding requires that a customized bank account is opened, with no bank secrecy applied, where all allocated electoral funds are transferred to it, and all expenditures are withdrawn from it. In addition, information on campaigns should be published and made accessible to all.
Signatory parties of this Code pledged to adhere to a set of rules and principles that will govern self-funding sources for electoral campaigns until a legal framework is developed upon which the new legal framework will be the reference for governing all funding, especially public funding.
Political parties and factions confirmed their commitment to provide the competent authorities with all related documents and data on sources of campaign funding and expenditures with each application and upon request.
Signatory parties to the Code agreed to set up a mechanism for the implementation of the Code as well as for monitoring compliance of the parties to its terms.
This initiative comes within the framework of AMAN’s efforts to provide guidelines for regulating electoral campaigns in partnership with the Palestinian Central Election Committee; and within the Civil Society Partnership Project funded by the EU. It was also carried out by drawing on the Tunisian expertise and experience which focused on financing of electoral campaigns at all levels formal and civil. AMAN considers this to be a key step towards reforming the legal and institutional structures, hence it also partnered with political parties, factions’, and civil bodies to carry out this endeavor. In this regard, studies conducted by AMAN showed that Palestinian election laws, as a whole, lack a tight legal framework for regulating and controlling the issue of financing electoral campaigns, exemplified by the last of these laws; Law by decision No.1 of 2007 on general elections.
In conclusion, it is worthy to note that the signing of this Code constitutes a glimmer of hope for the Palestinian people that democratic elections will be held soon. It also constitutes a paradigm shift towards for a future institutional and legal reform in the area of electoral campaign funding. In addition, the Code will serve as a base for civil society to effectively and professionally monitor electoral campaign funding in the future for all elections.
To access the full text of the Code in Arabic, please visit:
https://www.aman-palestine.org/ar/media-center/6085.html
