Madagascar: Political party finances

Updated June 2010

Extracted from: Lucien Toulou 2009 "Chapter 6: Madagascar" IN Denis Kadima and Susan Booysen (eds) Compendium of Elections in Southern Africa 1989-2009: 20 Years of Multiparty Democracy, EISA, Johannesburg,198-199.

As in many other countries in Africa, political financing is relatively under-regulated in Madagascar. There is no control of or limit on how much money one candidate or one party can spend on the electoral campaign. According to the law, reimbursement of expenses for candidates or parties should only be granted to those who receive more than 10 per cent of the vote. In addition, the law prohibits funding of political parties from state companies. Section 39 of the Electoral Code clearly states that no public enterprise should provide direct or indirect funds to support the electoral campaign of any party, organisation, candidate or list of candidates. Public embezzlement aimed at financing elections is a criminal offence under the Malagasy criminal law and the use of state resources in the campaign can lead to the nullification of election results, to the detriment of the offender.

Election observers in Madagascar have constantly noted that most election campaigns are dominated by the ruling party, an observation that seems to corroborate the generally held view that the ruling party had generous resources, compared to opposition parties. In view of the belief by the latter that the former uses public resources to campaign, election observers have recommended that electoral stakeholders in Madagascar consider putting in place clear regulations on access to public finances and overall funding of political parties, including disclosure on campaign income and expenditure to further enhance the fairness of the electoral process (EISA 2007, 15-16; 2008, 18-19).

There is no specific regulation pertaining to a compulsory declaration of campaign income and expenditure in Madagascar. There is no provision for the disclosure of election campaign-related funds raised or expense ceilings. As a result, parties and candidates with colossal resources dominate the political landscape throughout the campaign periods. This was the case of Ravalomanana and his party, TIM, which had banners, billboards and posters throughout the island in December 2006.

The potential "confusion between President Ravalomanana's private means and state resources" was consistently raised (EISA 2007, 15). In fact, before coming to power, Ravalomanana was not only the vice-president of the Church of Jesus Christ in Madagascar (FJKM), but also one of the most dynamic businessmen on the island. FJKM is one of the prominent members of the Council of Christian Churches in Madagascar (FFKM). President Ravalomanana's rivals contended that there was a conflict of interest between his personal businesses and his position as head of state. There was a widespread perception that the president's businesses had been positioned to win lucrative government contracts because of his position to the detriment of competitors. The preferential treatment reserved for his own companies, including Tiko, Magro and the Malagasy Broadcasting System (MBC) TV, was constantly mentioned as an illustration of this. For the EISA election observer mission to the December 2006 presidential election, there was an imbalance in access to public funds and state resources (EISA 2007, 15). This situation can undermine prospects for a level playing field during electoral campaigns. Hence the principle of transparency and balance in the use of public resources is vital. The EISA mission at the time was of the view that despite regular calls for the Electoral Code to be amended, or for a separate law regulating the funding of political parties, the reality is that only candidates with substantial resources could afford to stand for elections EISA 2007, 15).

Provisions of the political parties law of 2009

In 2009 Loi no 2009-002 relative aux partis politiques (Law No 2009-002 relating to the political parties) was passed by the Malagasy Parliament that aimed at strengthening the multiparty system by reducing the number of parties operating (primarily by tightening up party registration requirements and processes; see Political party registration) and simultaneously empowering those parties that remained, primarily by introducing public funding for register political parties for the first time (Loi no 2009-002, "Expose des motifs", Articles 22, 35(4.)).

Private funding, party expenditures and financial accounting

The new law added little to the provisions of the Electoral Code (Loi organique no 2000-014 du 24 aoât 2000 portant code électorale) outlined by Lucien Toulou above. Article 36 required that private sources of funding be transparent, but included no new provisions on disclosure, accounting or mechanism for monitoring funding. The same article prohibited party funding by foreign States or foreign public bodies, but once more no means by which the law could be enforced were created, nor were any penalties attached to sanction those who violated the law. No limits were placed on campaign expenditures nor were any provision made to make party funding, expenditure or financial management any more accountable to the State, to the public or to party members than hitherto.

Public funding

Public funding of registered political parties would be a function of the number of votes a party obtained, the modalities to be determined by the issue of regulations, and their allocation would begin with the publication of the results of the next election (Loi no 2009-002, Articles 37, 42). The law further specified that the regulations issued determine the rules governing how the funds are managed and the modalities of enforcing transparency of resource administration and annual financial reporting (Loi no 2009-002, Articles 38, 39).

References

EISA 2007 Election Observer Mission Report Presidential Elections 2006 [PDF document], Election Observer Mission Report no 24.

EISA 2008, 18-19 Election Observer Mission Report: Madagascar National Assembly Elections, 23 September 2007 [PDF document], Election Observer Mission Report no 27.

LOI NO 2009-002 relative aux partis politiques, [www] http://ddata.over-blog.com/xxxyyy/1/35/48/78/Madagascar/loi-2009-sur-les-partis-politiques.pdf [PDF document, opens new window] (accessed 14 Jun 2010).