THE ROAD TO 2023 AND ABUSE OF STATE ADMINISTRATIVE RESOURCES

State Administrative Resources (SAR) are public resources at the disposal of the three tiers of government for the day-to-day performance of state duties and functions. These resources could be financial, administrative/institutional, media, regulatory, coercive, legislative, etc. For financial resources, public funds secured through kickbacks and over-invoicing of contracts can be used to finance the campaign of the incumbents. Public funds directly stolen from the budget can also be used to fund campaigns. Institutional resources including human and material resources could be cornered by the incumbents for their use. Government-owned media can dedicate more time to incumbents while disparaging the opposition in abuse of media resources. Law enforcement agencies can intimidate the opposition and their supporters, unduly or maliciously prosecute them while regulation of the opposition may become stricter and more demanding than usually required of incumbent parties and candidates. The legislature’s power of law-making and oversight can be abused to frustrate the opposition. By S.95 of the Electoral Act 2022, it is provided that:
(1): A candidate and his or her party shall campaign for the elections in accordance with such rules and regulations as may be determined by the Commission.
(2) State apparatus including the media shall not be employed to the advantage or disadvantage of any political party or candidate at any election.

The 2013 Political Parties Code of Conduct had provided that:
All parties shall discourage their members in government from using their power of incumbency to the disadvantage of other parties or their candidates during campaigns. The earlier 2011 Political Parties Code of Conduct in paragraph 9 stated that all political parties shall separate party business from government business. As such, political parties shall not utilize public resources for any party activities and shall not permit any of its sponsored candidates holding public office to use public resources for the purpose of political campaign in elections. The underlying jurisprudence on safeguarding SAR and prohibiting their deployment in elections is to create a level playing field for all candidates and parties. Deploying SAR in favour of incumbents will undermine democracy by creating an uneven playing field in favour of incumbents and their party. Furthermore, this will undermine the constitutional non-discrimination provisions found in the Fundamental Rights chapter of the Constitution. In addition, putting public assets at the incumbent party’s disposal in its drive for re-election negatively influences the quality of governance, since the diversion of resources incurs financial costs for the institutions involved and may reduce the quantity or quality of services provided to the public. However, the rule against the deployment of SAR seems to be one of those sections of the Electoral Act more obeyed in the breach. This report documents the key abuses of SAR since the 2023 campaigns started

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