47. Do political parties have to report regularly on their finances?

IX. CAMPAIGN FINANCE

The CEC set up an audit group led by a CEC member to oversee compliance with campaign finance rules. Banks are required to provide the CEC with party financial information and the CEC regularly published the total amounts of incomes and expenditures for each party prior to election day. In line with the law, all parties submitted an interim report to the CEC with a breakdown of contributions and expenditures by category, which the CEC published on 24 September. However, the parties are not obliged to disclose the sources and individual amounts of contributions before election day. Based on the audit group’s findings, the CEC issued formal warnings to Aalam, Bir Bol, and the Congress of Peoples of Kyrgyzstan for making campaign finance transactions in cash. Parties are also required to submit a final financial report within 10 days after election day. However, there is no sanction should a party not submit the report. At the time of publication of this report, the CEC had not published parties’ final financial reports and the law does not oblige the CEC to do so, which limits the transparency of campaign finance rules.  To enhance campaign finance transparency, interim reports prior to election day could include information on the sources and amounts of contributions and the publication of final reports after the elections should be mandatory. The law could be amended to introduce effective, proportionate, and dissuasive sanctions for non-compliance and potential infringements.

(OSCE/ODIHR Election Observation Mission Final Report, Kyrgyz Republic Parliamentary Elections, 4 October 2015, available at http://www.osce.org/odihr/elections/kyrgyzstan/219186?download=true accessed February 2018).