The document discusses the challenges of campaign finance in Malaysia, focusing on issues such as vote-buying, loopholes in the law, and weak penalties. It highlights the need for better voter education, enforcement of existing laws, and the establishment of monitoring bodies to ensure transparency. Recommendations include developing best practices, enhancing cooperation between electoral management bodies and civil society organizations, and creating a joint committee for further discussions on improving campaign finance integrity.

1. Workshop Group
Campaign Finance

2. Common Challenges confronted
- Increasing use of money to influence voters (Vote buying, bribery)
- Unique to Malaysia, expenditures are higher in internal elections of political parties due to factionalism
- Gaps in the law that leave loopholes, in some countries there is the absence of a law to govern campaign
finance (Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Malaysia)
- Overspending in countries where there are limits
- Disconnect to political party laws (the political party and candidate spending gaps)
- Lack of voter education to know more about the issue and to reject bribes/vote-buying
- Enforcement of existing laws
- Ensuring that the amount reported by political parties/candidates are accurate
- No institutions or body strictly monitoring, in some cases the institution does not have the capacity to
monitor and audit
- Weak penalties or in some cases, penalties are not proportional to the degree of violation committed
- Advantage of the incumbent with difficulty tracking where the source of money come from
- Illegal Sources of funds
- Pre-campaign spending
- Role of Courts/body assigned to adjudicate cases related to campaign and political finance
- Partial support by government (subsidy) / Weak political parties needing public finance support

3. Best practices by EMBs and CSOs to enhance
transparency and integrity in terms of
Transparency Campaign Finance
- With a freedom on information act
complementing the issue, Political parties as per
law are required to be made public.
- Political donations are placed in a registered
account as a regulatory measure
- Having a separate body (control unit) to monitor
account and finance information- In Taiwan, The
control unit is also a supervisory body among
- EMB publishing to website and making all finance
reports of political parties and candidates public

4. Possible areas of cooperation between EMBs
and CSOs to further improve the process
• Supply: Rules, penalties
• Demand: Voter education
• Joint committee – as a follow-up to initial
discussions – to come up with a reference
model (to cover whole electoral cycle in the
discourse)

5. What support can regional and international groups
provide to overcome the identified challenges

6. E dorse e t to the Bali Cooperatio Electoral
Tra spare cy: Eight Keys to I tegrity
• The group endorsed the document
• No objections
• Items are proposed to be included however
agreed to further the discussion in the joint
committee