Election Funding Reform

No Member of Parliament or party candidate will say it, but one of the main reasons why the National Assembly MPs made such a strong push for the Prado Quota is in part to recover their election expenses.

The Election Commission of Bhutan (ECB) does provide Nu 150,000 per candidate and some funds to the party for campaigning, but unofficially this is far below what the candidate ends up actually spending.

There are stories of candidates emptying out their life savings and some even resorting to take loans.

Of course, it is illegal to spend above the authorized limit set by the ECB or above what the official party funds allow.

However, in reality the ECB only allows party fund collection in a restricted manner through registered members. This also leads to the official and unofficial budget of parties during elections.

It is high time that given the above realities there should be some electoral funding reform.

A reform that must be considered is increasing the Nu 150,000 allocated per candidate as it is not enough either from the inflationary point of view or bare minimum expenses.

Along with this reform must come very strict monitoring by the ECB, RBP and others during elections so that things like candidates spending huge sums of their own to sponsor the transport and even DSA of voters can be checked along the highway.

While state funding of political parties was proposed and dropped in the past, it is time to contemplate if a minimal amount can be given to parties so they don’t have to rely on a percentage of the salaries of sitting MPs to keep party offices running.

The ECB must also make it a little easier for political parties to raise funds in Bhutan. At the end of the day the parties will anyhow raise funds. It is better if it can be done openly where the ECB can regulate it.

Nobody wants campaign finance reform more than me. It would save me a fortune.
Andrew Tobias