http://electionfinance.net/blog Campaign finance practice, regulation, and reform in the world's democracies. Thu, 23 Apr 2009 16:42:51 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Lebanese elections use the "block vote" for multi-candidate lists with a confessional requirement. That is, the list in each multi-member electoral district that obtains the most votes wins ALL of the seats in the district, which makes for high stakes in each district. The confessional requirement is that for a ... http://electionfinance.net/blog/2009/04/23/foreign-money-seeks-to-buy-lebanese-votes/ For a couple of weeks there has been speculation that the presidential and mayoral campaigns of the Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD) candidates in Panama received money--up to US$6 million--from David Murcia Guzman, who was last year caught in Panama after his pyramid scheme in Colombia was exposed. Today, the incumbent PRD's presidential ... http://electionfinance.net/blog/2009/03/11/panama-campaign-money-from-colombian-pyramid-scheme/ President Correa's election campaign was fined by the Consejo Nacional Electoral for a broadcast on government TV which featured a cover of the Beatles' Hey Jude and displayed a Correa campaign poster int he background. Latinnews.com ($) writes: Correa claimed that the campaign was being fined for “three seconds of a broadcast” ... http://electionfinance.net/blog/2009/03/11/ecuador-correas-campaign-fined-cne-as-intermediary/ Ecuador has elections coming up, in April. The official campaign period begins in 3 weeks. Candidates are collecting money through the internet and through public events like bingos and raffles. Opponents to President Correa, who is running again, are worried that he will have too much of an advantage by ... http://electionfinance.net/blog/2009/03/02/ecuador-towards-the-april-elections/ In the wake of allegations that shadow minister Osborne received large contributions from a wealthy Russian, the government seeks to upgrade and tighten enforcement of the restriction on foreign political donations, currently illegal under British law. The Home Secretary will attempt to add the provisions to "Political Parties and Elections ... http://electionfinance.net/blog/2008/10/27/uk-ministers-to-close-foreign-donor-loopholes/ Current law prohibits donations from businesses that receive contracts from the state and gambling. The Health Minister is proposing the changes this week, after the connections that have emerged in recent months involving (legal) drug companies, illegal drugs, and contributions to President Cristina Kircher's campaign. Story at Clarin (spanish). http://electionfinance.net/blog/2008/10/27/argentina-health-minister-proposes-prohibiting-donations-from-businesses/ The Associated Press writes about the diminished likelihood of a revival for the public financing system: ... But advocates of a public finance system aren't eager to give up on a system that relies on voluntary taxpayer contributions on their annual tax returns. And while Obama backed away from his promise ... http://electionfinance.net/blog/2008/10/20/us-obama-money-dooms-current-public-finance/ The Dealbook blog at the NYTimes has this report based on a release by the Center for Responsive Politics. Echoing the point made in the post, I would say to its commenters that the data cannot be taken as evidence that contributions buys votes in Congress since FIRE industries are more likely ... http://electionfinance.net/blog/2008/09/30/us-among-bailout-supporters-wall-st-donations-ran-high/ It has been frequently remarked that Brazilian legislative elections are expensive, This week, the Economist says that what is true for federal seats is also true for vereador elections: elections for local municipal councils are also expensive, and it would seem in part for the same reasons. Here's a good chunk of their ... http://electionfinance.net/blog/2008/09/28/brazil-expensive-local-elections/ The Herald has a series of articles on the undeclared donations scandal in New Zealand, which has tarnished the government right before November (or earlier) elections. Here's the source of the controversy: New Zealand First is now facing three separate inquiries into donations it received since 2005 and the Electoral Commission ... http://electionfinance.net/blog/2008/09/08/nz-nz-first-inquiries/