News • 26 January 2003

Election expenditure law riddled with loopholes

By Kurt Sansone

Valletta - The billboard frenzy that the major political parties have embarked on is a clever way of getting around the electoral law that regulates expenditure during an election. By erecting the billboards before the start of the electoral campaign the rules of party spending do not apply.
The law stipulates that an agent for a candidate can spend up to Lm600. However, all candidates contesting on the same party ticket can spend a maximum of Lm3,000 per district.
With 13 districts this means that a political party should only spend a total of Lm39,000 during an electoral campaign.
However, it is well known that the sleek and well-oiled electoral campaigns the major political parties regale us with cost much more than that. Suffice to say that a single billboard costs around Lm600 for a month and a full-page colour advert in The Times also costs around Lm600.
Other expenses incurred during election campaigns include publicity leaflets, parties, concerts, calendars, mini-magazines and other paraphernalia, the cost of which must run into thousands of liri to produce.

In order to get around the law during an electoral campaign candidates have their public events and leaflets produced by ‘friends’. Contacted by MaltaToday, Chief Electoral Commissioner Carmel De Gabriele said the Electoral Commission has no power to control such activities.
Asked about the billboard spree before the start of the electoral campaign Mr De Gabriele referred this newspaper to the law.
When the General Elections Act was enacted in 1991 it sought to replace the 1939 Ordinance that regulated the election of members of parliament. But the new law did not repeal the sections in the pre-war ordinance that regulated the expenditure of candidates and political parties during elections.
Critics argue that the amounts stipulated by law are ridiculous given the expenses incurred to run proper electoral campaigns. The sections of the ordinance that are still in force even stipulate that the candidate can only spend Lm12 on a personal level to cover minor expenses such as transport costs.
The law covers expenditure made by candidates and political parties "before, during or after an election" and the words are construed to mean from the day the election is called. Therefore, all material being currently distributed by prospective candidates including the party billboards erected just over two weeks ago, are not covered by that law.
The irony of the situation is that candidates are required to declare their expenses when the election is over. Because of the ‘friends’ loophole candidates are able to get away with spending way above what the law intends.