Parliament nullifies spending limits set by IEBC
Political aspirants in next year’s general elections will have liberty to spend heavily in campaigns after Parliament moved to nullify the recently gazetted spending limits by the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC).
National Assembly delegated legislation committee also threw out election campaign financing regulations that were forwarded by IEBC last week.
MPs have hinted at suspending the act even as IEBC insists that some sections of the act are implementable.
On Wednesday, a section of MPs accused IEBC of sidelining Parliament in the gazettement of the Election Campaign Financing Guidelines.
The lawmakers argued that IEBC erred in gazetting the guidelines before it considered regulations for the election campaign financing act.
They accused the electoral body of trying to drive a wedge between parliament and the public.
The matter was brought before the house Tuesday afternoon by the Minority whip in the National Assembly, Junet Mohammed who wanted the speaker to rule against the regulations questioning the timing of their presentation in Parliament.
On Monday IEBC gazetted elections campaigns spending limits, a week after they forwarded regulations necessary to operationalize the elections campaign funding act.
The electoral body said it had set the limits for political parties in accordance with the Constitution, IEBC Act 2011, and Election Campaign Finance Act 2013.
“The contribution limits that a political party may receive during the expenditure period shall be 100% of the spending limits prescribed … the contribution limits that a political party candidate and the independent candidate shall receive during the expenditure period shall be 100% of the spending limits prescribed ….Pursuant to section 12 (2) of the of the Election Campaign Financing Act, 2013, a contribution from a single source is limited to twenty per cent of the total contributions in the schedules above,” read the notice.
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