Digital disclosure of political finance in Africa, Asia and the Pacific, and Latin America and the Caribbean

This working paper by Transparency International examines how countries in Africa, Asia and the Pacific, and Latin America and the Caribbean approach the digital disclosure of political party and candidate finance.

Among 117 countries reviewed, in 75 per cent of them we found no system in place for the digital publication of political finance information by an oversight institution. Across the three regions assessed, donor information was found in 14 of the 33 countries assessed in Latin America and the Caribbean, seven of the 33 assessed in Asia and the Pacific, and only one of the 51 assessed in Africa.

This lack of transparency undermines democracy and accountability. Transparency in how politicians raise and spend money to do their job fosters public trust and counters corruption in politics. Publishing political finance data online – which in this report we call “digital disclosure” – is the only way to achieve transparency in a timely, user-friendly manner.

Transparency International recommends that all countries should introduce at least basic forms of digital disclosure of political finance data. Publishing the non-machine-readable files of received reports is far from a fully user-friendly approach, but it is significantly more accessible than keeping the reports in a desk drawer.

As a next step, political finance oversight institutions should seek to process received data into searchable databases, allowing users to analyse information across political parties and candidates. While such systems are more demanding to create and maintain, they can significantly enhance political finance transparency.

Oversight institutions can further increase the deterrent potential of digital disclosure by considering the interoperability of financial information with other data sources, such as tax records, business registers and cadastres.

Through concerted efforts to present political finance data online, oversight institutions can greatly increase transparency of how political parties and election campaigns are financed, so that voters can make informed choices at the ballot box.