Parties want to discuss state institutions that may have a direct influence on the looming national and provincial elections  Share Article: OPPOSITION parties are to form a committee next week in a united front on common issues such as the funding they receive from the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) and to discuss state institutions that may have a direct influence on the looming national and provincial elections. United Democratic Movement leader Bantu Holomisa said the committee should be up and running by either Sunday or Monday, and he was awaiting names from the other political parties on who would be on the committee. Among the other parties are the Democratic Alliance (DA), the Congress of the People, the African Christian Democratic Party, Azapo, the Freedom Front Plus (FF+) and the Pan Africanist Congress. The parties are also mulling getting legal opinion to see if the allocation of public monies by the IEC can be changed to ensure they get a greater share of the pot, which is more than R100m. "We need to deal with those government institutions that may have a direct influence on the outcome of the elections and ensure they play fairly," Mr Holomisa said. He said the parties wanted a formula that determined a change in the allocation of public funds for political parties. "The amount allocated (to the smaller parties) is peanuts. It is so small that it is actually embarrassing," he said. According to the IEC’s 2011-12 report on party funding, it disbursed R103,900,782, of which 90% or R93,510,704 was allocated on a proportional basis. The remaining R10,390,078 was allocated on an equitable basis. This means that the African National Congress received R64,920,566, the DA received R17,151,243 and smaller parties such as the Freedom Front Plus received R1,109,188. The Public Funding of Represented Political Parties Act regulates the formula. FF+ parliamentary leader Pieter Groenewald said the steering committee would not necessarily agree on every detail, but the funding issue was one that had almost universal appeal. "We think that a fairer allocation of public funds would be on a 50% equity and 50% proportional basis. Currently, the ANC gets 66% of the pot," he said. DA federal council chairman James Selfe said the issue of party funding should not just be about the formula, but also to look at the broader principle of public monies used to fund political parties. "There is a regrettable tendency emerging where some political parties, including the ruling party, who are only using public funds to fund their activities. Is this taxpayer value?" Human Sciences Research Council head of governance and democracy Judith February said: "Opposition parties have a role of monitoring and oversight. Recently we have seen that the Department of Social Development distributed food parcels during the Tlokwe elections and that sort of behaviour must be monitored. " She said the ANC must take the lead on any legal changes to party funding. Ms February said the private funding of parties, especially from companies, was probably an even bigger issue. "The sources of that funding is kept secret so we don’t know who funded any of the parties and what promises have been made," she said.
Posted on: Wed, 14 Aug 2013 15:26:04 +0000
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