European Union Warns About Political Campaign Financing in Colombia
Amid favorable comments about Colombia’s electoral proces, which ended with the election of Abelardo de la Espriella after a two-round vote, each with its respective vote count, the head of the European Union Election Observation Mission (EU EOM), Esteban Gonzalez Pons, issued a warning.
He said that the “underreporting of expenses” remains one of the main problems of the Colombian electoral system and asserted that it is a structural situation affecting all candidacies. That, of course, did not detract from the transparency of the presidential runoff and the validity of the electoral process.
In fact, in the Mission’s preliminary statement on the second round of the presidential election, Gonzalez Pons congratulated the Colombian people for their democratic commitment, reflected in a historic level of voter turnout. “The National Civil Registry organized the election in a transparent and efficient manner and with great independence, despite the logistical and security challenges in certain areas of the country,” he said.
Underreporting of campaign expenses remains a constant
However, in its preliminary report, the EU EOM also warned that serious shortcomings persist in the oversight of campaign financing and cautioned about the “more than likely underreporting” of campaign expenditures and income during the electoral process.
The document states that the deficiencies detected during the first round remained in the runoff, especially because of in-kind donations, private contributions, and volunteer networks that, in many cases, were not reported on the Cuentas Claras platform.
Gonzalez Pons explained that this is not a situation exclusive to this year’s elections, but rather a recurring problem that has existed for a long time.
Indeed, it is a burden that Colombian democracy has carried for years. In the case of Colombia’s current president, Gustavo Petro, the National Electoral Council (CNE) found at least seven irregularities in the first round and five in the runoff regarding contributions received by the Petro Presidente campaign for which the documentation required by law was not submitted and which would constitute violations of campaign spending limits.
“The underreporting of campaign expenditures in Colombian elections has been a constant in our reports. And in our final report there will once again be a call for changes in the legislation so that it can be properly identified,” said the head of the mission. “It does not affect one specific candidacy but all of them, including parliamentary elections.”
The problem takes on an even greater dimension in digital campaigns, the report also warns. The mission believes that Colombian legislation still does not provide sufficient tools to track the money invested in political advertising on the internet because, among other reasons, many of the platforms operate from abroad and remain beyond the control of national authorities.
Political advertising on social media became one of the main battlegrounds of the presidential campaign, the observers found. While Ivan Cepeda increased his advertising on Meta platforms, Abelardo de la Espriella concentrated much of his strategy on YouTube and TikTok.
In any case, the mission points out that, unlike Meta, those platforms continue to provide very little public information about the origin and amount of contracted political advertising.
“The runoff campaign took place mainly on the internet,” the head of the Mission said, “with widespread disinformation and an unprecedented use of artificial intelligence and ultra-realistic manipulated content.”
That transformation of political campaigns makes it necessary to review the current regulations, Gonzalez Pons said. “The control of spending in digital electoral campaigns, apart from not being sufficiently declared, is extremely difficult because of the international nature of these platforms,” he stated.
He added that Colombia is confronting the challenges of the digitalization of politics ahead of many other countries: “Colombia is a highly digitalized country and is at the forefront of dealing with the changes, for better and for worse, brought by digitalization and social media. Therefore, here we are observing things that we have not yet seen elsewhere.”
Strength of Colombian democracy
The preliminary statement also included concerns expressed by the Office of the Comptroller General regarding possible risks in the use of public resources during the campaign and recalled that the agency identified contracts signed after the entry into force of the Electoral Guarantees Law that might not comply with the exceptions established by the legislation.
During the presidential runoff, which took place without any noteworthy incidents, the EU EOM deployed 141 observers from 24 European Union countries, as well as Norway, Switzerland, and Canada, who observed 592 polling stations throughout the Republic.
“We have observed the legislative elections and both rounds of the presidential election,” Gonzalez Pons explained. “From this experience, I highlight the strength of Colombian democracy, supported by independent institutions and a strong commitment to the rule of law. Polarization has not been, and must not become, a cause of its weakening.”
The EU EOM preliminary statement highlighted that the results management system is reliable and efficient and complies with international standards of transparency, integrity, and traceability. According to the report, the preliminary vote count was transparent and very rapid, with almost 100 percent of the preliminary results published within one hour after the polls closed.