The Political Party and Election Campaign Financing Assessment Study -Mongolia

Political campaign funding is one of the main loci of corruption in democracy. In Mongolia as in many countries around the world, private interests have bought off politicians and bureaucrats to shape legal, policy and regulatory environments to their own ends. One area particularly prone to such influence is the financing of the political system. It is very expensive to operate a political party, particularly during an election campaign, and public funding is seldom adequate. Dependence of politicians and political parties upon contributions from a small number of economic actors distorts public policies and breeds public cynicism about the political system. The problem of corruption in campaign finance is donations to parties, whereby in return the donor would receive service, such as passing of legislation that is advantageous to the donor. In addition, parties that exercise control over public resources may also use those resources to conduct election campaigns.