Who will fund the 2014 party elections campaigns?

Later this month, South Africa’s ruling party will stage its National Policy Conference ahead of the National Elective Conference due to take place in December. These two events, mark the start of the preparations for the national general elections due to take place in 2014.

Elections by their very nature involve campaigning and these campaigns require huge amounts of funding. Since the first democratic elections in 1994, there has been much debate as to who should fund party-political campaigns: should it be government (using tax-payer monies); should it be the private sector or indeed various forms of international funders, OR perhaps a combination of all the above?

In the US, where the 2012 Presidential Election campaign is in full swing, candidates who qualify based on a set criteria can apply for government funding for both their primaries and general election campaigns. However, those who accept such government funding are subject to a spending limit. It is this spending limit which has often driven many Presidential campaigners to prefer private funding of their campaigns as this comes with no limitations. It is a matter of record that during his 2008 Presidency, then Presidential Candidate Obama was able to raise in excess of US$700Mil from private donors.

It will be interesting to see which funding model the Independent Electoral Council (IEC) will push for as we move closer to the 2012 General Elections. Currently political parties get most of their funding from private donations with little assistance from the IEC.