Are parties, candidates mindful of election expenses limits?

I visited some parts of the country in the past fortnight as part of my own monitoring of the ongoing campaigns, and doubted if parties and their candidates were aware of the act of Parliament that limits amounts of funds that a particular candidate or party is be allowed to spend during the election process. For lack of proper civic and voter education in 2020, I fear that candidates and parties may go way beyond the limits, and be in breach of the Election Expenses Act, 2010. Do they know the legal ceilings?

According to the law, all election expenses by candidates and parties shall be duly accounted for and audited to ascertain conformity with the requirements of the law. These expenses include funds in cash, aircraft, vehicles, T-shirts, party flags, publications, as well as artwork and entertainment throughout the electoral process from nominations, campaigns to voting day. Expenses also include food, accommodation and refreshments for the candidates and their campaign teams, costs incurred towards media coverage and reporting of the process, and literally just any other expenditure related to the election process incurred within 90 days from voting day.

It is obligatory, by way of Section 9 of the Act, that candidates must make disclosures of the amounts of resources available to them for their electoral processes, and that the same should happen within seven days of their nomination. Accordingly, Section 9(1) (b) requires that even funds expected to be raised along the way must be declared in advance. Out of curiosity, I have initiated a process to access the disclosures. The data from the findings shall contribute to my future articles.

What is not known very well publicly is that there are stringent caps set by the Election Expenses Act with regard to how much can be spent during the election period. For instance, in the ongoing election campaigns, political parties are forbidden from spending more than Sh15 billion. Likewise, a single presidential candidate is expected to spend not more than Sh5 billion. This should be on the minds of Dr John Pombe Joseph Magufuli, Mr Tundu Antiphas Lissu and the other 13 presidential candidates currently on the campaign trail.

The law also has also placed ceilings for all the other elective positions. For instance, civic candidates in urban wards can spend a maximum of Sh7 million, while their limit for their rural counterparts is Sh5 million.

For parliamentary seats, the law prescribes amounts in six clusters depending on constituency size in square kilometres, population and level of communication infrastructure. Hence, for constituencies in Cluster 1 (mostly along the coastal line and Zanzibar) the limit is Sh30 million. This category has 60 constituencies.

Under Cluster 2 (with 52 constituencies that include Chilonwa, Kibakwe, Mtwara, Tunduru, Longido and Kasulu), the ceiling is Sh40 million. In larger or more populous and more urban constituencies such as Mtera, Manyoni West, Nachingwea and Bukombe candidates are allowed to spend a maximum of Sh50 million, while and the largest and highly populated constituencies such as Ubungo, Kilombero, Temeke, Mpanda East, Bariadi and Kahama the limit is Sh80 million. For candidates vying for parliamentary and civic special seats, the caps are even lower at Sh10 million and from Sh2.5 million to Sh3.5 million, respectively.

In addition to setting expenditure limits, the law also outlines spending prohibitions. Section 22 of the Act provides that payments and promises for payments aimed at inducing voters to vote for a particular candidate shall be deemed corruption and therefore illegal. The list also includes food or drinks; credit and loan facilities; promises for jobs or employment, and similar offers. The law also requires that all candidates duly submit reports accounting for their election expenses to their respective parties within 90 days after Election Day. The respective parties shall compile the reports and make an official submission to the registrar of political parties no more than 180 days after receiving reports from candidates.

It is worth noting that the Election Expenses Act is not toothless. The law also provides for penalties and sanctions against violators. For instance, according to Section 26, parties that flout the law may be required to pay up to Sh3 million in fines, while the rate for individual candidates is Sh1 million. To discourage NGOs and related actors from interfering in the electoral process with cash handouts, the penalty for the offence is a Sh5 million fine. It is also worth mentioning that defaulting on reporting election expenses or presentation of false reports is forbidden under Section 27 of the law, and violators could be fined up to Sh5 million.

Finally, parties whose candidate(s) continuously violate the law may be suspended or removed from the electoral process.

With Election Day just over one week away, this is an opportune time to ask: how have parties and their candidates fared so far as far as the Election Expenses Act is concerned?

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Deus Kibamba is trained in Political Science, International Studies and International Law and lectures on international relations and diplomacy