All democracies—new and old—struggle to address this challenge but it is more pronounced in the case of fledgling democracies like our own. The public notice issued by the Election Commission against 41 political parties on Saturday, asking them why it should not revoke their registration for failing to submit their income-expenditure statements, is a grim reminder of the distance that we still need to cover before we are anywhere close to judiciously addressing this challenge.
As per existing election law, the parties are required to submit their audited financial reports to the Election Commission every year. And if a party fails to comply with this requirement for three consecutive years, the Commission can annul its registration. The major political parties—including the UCPN (M), NC and UML—rushed to submit their hurriedly prepared audit reports just a few days before the end of the three-year deadline.
This clearly shows that the parties see financial transparency as a burdensome legal obligation and not a moral obligation. None of Nepal’s parties has a clean financial track record and the larger the party the bigger the problem. Though the big three -- UCPN (M), NC, UML-- have submitted their audited reports, it is hard to believe that these reports encompass all their incomes and expenditures. When it comes to their finances, the parties hide more than they reveal. This opacity that pervades almost all the political parties in Nepal often serves the interests of the party establishments as it gives them a monopoly over the use and misuse of money.
Leave alone the EC or the general public, even senior party leaders are often in the dark about the financial status of their respective parties. As long as Girija Prasad Koirala was the NC president, party leaders and cadres hardly ever dared to ask him how much money the party had at any given point in time. Though rival factions among the Maoists raise the issue of financial transparency in the party, and even occasionally accuse Maoist Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal of corruption, they have hardly any idea how much money Dahal controls or how much their party raised during the insurgency. Forcing the parties to maintain transparency is key to strengthening intra-party democracy.
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