According to various news reports, the 2024 US elections cost nearly $16 billion—a staggering amount for a single election. Beyond election campaigns, political parties have numerous other functions and obligations that require regular funding. While political fundraising and expenditure data are generally transparent and publicly accessible in the US, UK, and many other European nations, such information is neither well-documented nor widely disseminated in developing countries like Bangladesh. Yet, despite being economically far behind, there is no reason to believe that political spending in these countries consumes a smaller share of national resources compared to wealthier democracies.
How do political parties obtain funding? The simple answer is through subscriptions and donations. Politically conscious individuals may obtain membership in a political party whose policies and plans they support, paying membership subscriptions. Others may contribute through voluntary donations. When you donate money to a person or organization, you inherently gain influence over their activities or agenda. The larger the donation, the greater the expectations of influence.
According to CNN, Elon Musk, the richest person in the world and CEO of companies like Tesla and SpaceX, donated more than $290 million in the 2024 US election. We saw how he influenced the functioning of the US government after the election. Of course, within a short time, his relationship with President Trump ended in a feud, and he distanced himself from the administration, but that’s another story.
The veteran US senator Bernie Sanders noted that billionaires who constitute just 0.5% of the US population accounted for 18% of the 2024 election spending. He argued that the ultra-rich are effectively buying the government, undermining the principle of “one-person, one-vote” in democracy.
Political financing is indeed a crucial issue for democracy to be meaningful. In all developed nations, there are specified limits for political donations and a requirement for disclosure. However, there are also workarounds to these restrictions, for which it was possible for 0.5% of the population to account for 18% of election spending in the US in 2024. Nevertheless, all donations and expenditures are formally recorded and publicly accessible for scrutiny in these countries.
In countries like Bangladesh, where rules are not well-structured and their enforcement is not rigorous, political financing can become riddled with corruption. The Representation of the People Order provides detailed guidelines for election procedures, expenditure, and related matters. It specifies caps on election spending and requires candidates to declare the source of their campaign funds when submitting their nominations. Additionally, the Election Commission mandates audited annual reports of income and expenditure from registered political parties. However, there is no system for recording every donation to political parties along with donor details and making that information publicly available.
The state pays elected politicians such as members of parliament, ministers, the prime minister, and the president. But what about party workers and lower-level leaders of ruling and opposition parties? These people are engaged full-time in politics, leaving them no opportunity to earn a lawful livelihood or support their families. They need to be paid from the party’s funds. However, that rarely happens in practice; instead, they often resort to illegal means such as toll collection and extortion to survive. These people are the backbone of all political programs and activities. Party high-ups rely on them, and since the parties do not pay them regularly, they turn a blind eye to their illicit earnings. This undeclared, tacitly approved system of political financing breeds corruption. It also introduces violence and intimidation in political rivalries.
An increasing number of unemployed youth, often lacking proper education, are drawn to becoming so-called political workers or minor party leaders, tempted by the prospect of easy money and social power. They affiliate themselves with a political party, and beyond participating in political events, they engage in activities such as extortion, illegal land and property grabbing, coercing tolls from small businesses, establishing slums, and facilitating illegal utility connections through corrupt officials. These become their full-time occupations. Parties in power may also indulge in corruption, such as awarding large government contracts in exchange for kickbacks, to raise funds for the party. Civil servants who run the government machinery inevitably become involved in such corruption.
Large-scale extortion and illegal toll collection, along with government corruption, add extra costs to various economic activities such as transportation, construction, sales, and distribution. They all go into the price of various products and services. Thus, people bear the burden of a flawed democracy through an increasingly unbearable cost of living.
To break this cycle, systemic reforms in political financing are essential. Full-time political workers and leaders must be registered and paid regular salaries by their parties to prevent them from resorting to illegal earnings through political clout. Until structured and transparent systems for financing political parties and political spending are established, corruption cannot be eradicated from society, and the benefits of democracy will remain elusive for the masses.
This article was published in the Daily Sun on July 6, 2025. Here is the link: https://www.daily-sun.com/printversion/details/812578