When longtime dictator Omar Bongo died earlier this month, he left behind at least 66 bank accounts. The first family owned 45 homes in France, including at least 14 in Paris and 11 on the French Riviera. And they boasted of 19 or more luxury cars, including a Bugatti sports model that cost the Republic of Gabon $1.5 million. … (Complete Story)

Malawi's Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) is denying that the seizure of ex-President Bakili Muluzi's passport was politically motivated. The former president was scheduled to visit the United Kingdom Wednesday for a medical checkup. … (Complete Story)

The recent move by the Nigerian Senate to amend some sections of the Acts setting up the two anti-graft bodies, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), with a view to expunging the various sections that circumscribe their independence and hamper their effective operations, is most welcome … (Complete Story)

LUSAKA, Zambia — The fight against corruption in Africa’s most pivotal nations is faltering as public agencies investigating wrongdoing by powerful politicians have been undermined or disbanded and officials leading the charge have been dismissed, subjected to death threats and driven into exile. … (Complete Story)

Lagos — Chairman of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in this interaction with some newsmen examines the performance of Nigeria's democracy in the last one decade and laments that money politics remains the disturbing issue in the country. He also outlines other challenges facing the system. IHEANACHO NWOSU was there. … (Complete Story)

Lusaka, Malawi - MMD chairman for elections, Mike Mulongoti has challenged opposition Patriotic Front president, Michael Sata, to produce evidence of how President Banda and the MMD allegedly used funds from the Ministry of Health to campaign in the 2008 elections. … (Complete Story)

French authorities are to investigate the assets of the Gabonese President Omar Bongo, who is accused of misappropriating millions of dollars meant for public services. Here, Christophe Pons of BBC Focus On Africa magazine examines the history of the world's longest-serving republican head of state. … (Complete Story)

Uganda - Members of Parliament have called for the establishment of an Anti Corruption Commission to coordinate the activities of all agencies involved in fighting Corruption. … (Complete Story)

Disclosure rules vary widely for lawmakers around the world … (Complete Story)

The former head of Nigeria's anti-corruption unit has had threats made against his life, US-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) has said. … (Complete Story)

Kenya's anti-corruption watchdog is suing seven current and former members of parliament for taking illegal allowances worth $250,000 (£166,000). … (Complete Story)

Dr. Kweku Osafo, Chairman of the Political Committee of the Convention People’s Party (CPP), on Thursday said the best way to deal with corruption was for the elite in society to admit that they were the most corrupt and to clean and purge themselves of political corruption. … (Complete Story)

Security operatives have taken Nigeria's former anti-corruption Czar Nuhu Ribadu to an unknown destination, after he was forced out of the venue of the graduation ceremony for members of his course at the country's prestigious National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS) in the northern city of Jos on Saturday. … (Complete Story)

The Independent National Electoral Commission has queried the failure of the Peoples Democratic Party leadership to account for the whereabouts of N50m purportedly transferred from the party’s current account with a new generation bank to another deposit account with the same bank. … (Complete Story)

Freetown, Sierra Leone - Political Party Registration Commissioner Roland Caesar has expressed displeasure at the ruling All Peoples Congress (APC) and opposition Sierra Leone Peoples Party's (SLPP) reluctance to submit their updated 2007 Parliamentary and Presidential 2007 elections expenditures. … (Complete Story)

THE Monitor Action Group has called on Government to compel political parties who get State funding to submit annual reports. … (Complete Story)

Representatives of major political parties in the country have expressed mixed feelings about the content of a proposed bill for the funding of parties. … (Complete Story)

Kenyans will be stuck in a cycle that accelerates corruption in election campaigns unless political parties are funded directly by taxpayers. … (Complete Story)

THE Gauteng legislature yesterday adopted the provincial Political Party Fund Bill, which is intended to limit the dependence of political parties on private donors. … (Complete Story)

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GHANA INTEGRITY Initiative (GII), the local chapter of the global anti-corruption body, Transparency International has defended the use of perception as a basis for most of the findings on incidence of corruption. … (Complete Story)

Recently, the chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, presented a paper on the effect of corruption on the nation’s democracy at the fifth Justice James Moradeyo Adesiyun Biennial Memorial Public Lecture held in Ilorin, Kwara State. , who was there, reports: … (Complete Story)

Kenya may be legally bound to repay tens of millions of pounds of debt incurred when politicians signed security-related contracts with non-existent companies. … (Complete Story)

Secret party funding must end Idasa SA's democracy cannot afford hidden 'donations' to politicians such as those from Brett Kebble, says institute Parliamentary Editor CAPE TOWN Private donations to political parties should be regulated by law and should be open to public scrutiny, the Institute for Democracy in SA (Idasa) says in a recently published guide for the corporate world on making political donations. Idasa suggested that companies fund only parties that were registered with the Independent Electoral Commission and that they should outline a set of principles to which parties must conform to qualify for a donation. It suggested that donations of more than R50000 be declared and that they be paid into a bank account and not to individuals in hard cash. … (Complete Story)

South Sudan's anti-corruption commission will launch a wide-ranging probe into the semi-autonomous government's contracts after allegations arose that millions of Sudanese dinar had disappeared. … (Complete Story)

VISITING British Parliamentarians in the country have slammed their Nigerian colleagues for distancing themselves from their constituencies even as they urged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to use an updated version of the 2003 voters' register for the 2007 elections … (Complete Story)

TWO umbrella civil society organizations have questioned the competence of the Kenya-Anti Corruption Commission (KACC) to handle graft cases … (Complete Story)

Provincial and Local Government Minister Sydney Mufamadi launched a municipal anti-corruption strategy today and urged officials to use this as a tool to empower their communities … (Complete Story)

Namibian opposition parties believe that lack of adequate financial resources is the biggest culprit for their poor performance during national elections … (Complete Story)

President Olusegun Obasanjo on Tuesday asked the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria to support the government's anti-corruption campaign by purging corrupt members … (Complete Story)

Lawrence Duprey's CL Financial Group provided scarcely imaginable largesse to the ruling People's National Movement (PNM) party in the last general election at a time when it was already on the ropes-short on cash and highly leveraged. … (Complete Story)

WASHINGTON — When President Obama arrived at the Mandarin Oriental hotel for a fund-raising reception on Thursday night, the new White House rules of political purity were in order: no lobbyists allowed. … (Complete Story)

Ask any political consultant what is the most important thing needed to win an election, and he will undoubtedly say, "Money and lots of it." But the reality is that while money helps, it doesn't automatically follow that the guy with the most is going to win. Tuesday's primary election in Virginia provides the latest evidence of this fact. … (Complete Story)

Forget all the chatter about the technology geeks transforming politics. To find the truly enduring entrepreneurs, focus on the campaign finance gurus. … (Complete Story)

Judicial reform advocates are hailing yesterday's Supreme Court ruling requiring elected judges to step aside in "extreme" cases where campaign donations may create the perception of bias. The 5-4 decision (PDF) will have wide-ranging consequences for state judicial election law, and highlights the growing role of special interest groups in campaign fundraising. … (Complete Story)

WASHINGTON - In order to institute a key recommendation of its electoral observation missions, the OAS has embarked on a comprehensive initiative to provide model legislation on political party and campaign financing in the Caribbean. … (Complete Story)

WASHINGTON — A day after President Obama announced his choices for some of the most coveted ambassador posts in the world, his press secretary, Robert Gibbs, was asked about their credentials. … (Complete Story)

WASHINGTON — In 1996, Judge Sonia Sotomayor delivered a speech comparing campaign contributions to “bribes” and asking whether elected officials could credibly say they were “representing only the general public good, when private money plays such a large role” in helping them win office. … (Complete Story)

Another potential rival to New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has withdrawn from the race, citing the billionaire mayor's spending potential as a reason for not seeking the Democratic nomination this year. … (Complete Story)

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Hours after exercising a cherished presidential right Tuesday — naming a Supreme Court nominee — Barack Obama engaged in one of the office's grubbier traditions: raising money for an embattled lawmaker. … (Complete Story)

When candidate Barack Obama decided last year that he was so flush with donations that he would spurn public financing for both the nomination and general election campaigns, he worried many of those who were trying to reduce the influence of big money on elections. Obama seemed to reassure them, though, by promising that if he became president he would push to fix the system. … (Complete Story)

Under a lattice of cable rigged more than a century ago, a tall man in a straw fedora stands a few yards from the Brooklyn end of the Brooklyn Bridge and points to a plot of land just to the north. … (Complete Story)

Wealthy Wall Street executives may be outcasts to some Americans, but not to Democratic Sen. Chris Dodd. … (Complete Story)

As the nation’s economy mires in recession, most Americans are anticipating lower earnings by making do with less — but not those who call Capitol Hill home. … (Complete Story)

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton reached an important milestone Wednesday in her quest to pay the debt from her failed 2008 presidential bid: For the first time in eight months, her campaign committee reported having more money in the bank than it owes. … (Complete Story)

A nonprofit group that specializes in databases tracking the influence of money in politics is making its information available to others. … (Complete Story)

Never a politician prone to raking in gobs of campaign cash, Gov. Pat Quinn floated a new idea Thursday as he thinks about running for governor: Candidates seeking election next year shouldn't be allowed to use money they've already collected. … (Complete Story)

Eight months before the election, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg is unleashing the first wave of what could be biggest and most expensive political advertising campaign in the city’s history. … (Complete Story)

Supporters of legislation to overhaul the way congressional campaigns are funded say President Barack Obama’s support and his fundraising prowess are crucial to their success. … (Complete Story)

A quirky case about a slashing documentary attacking Hillary Rodham Clinton would not seem to be the most obvious vehicle for a fundamental re-examination of the interplay between the First Amendment and campaign finance laws. … (Complete Story)

After the most expensive campaign cycle in U.S. history, a bipartisan group of lawmakers will introduce legislation this week to create an ambitious voluntary public campaign financing system that would ban contributions from lobbyists and place strict limits on other sources of campaign cash. … (Complete Story)

One of the co-defendants in former Puerto Rico Governor Aníbal Acevedo Vilá’s campaign finance trial turned the tables around on the former governor, testifying that his former boss suggested using his own family members to make straw donations to pay for his resident commissioner campaign debts. … (Complete Story)

Disclosure rules vary widely for lawmakers around the world … (Complete Story)

Joseph L. Bruno, the former State Senate majority leader, was indicted on Friday on charges that he reaped millions of dollars from companies seeking business from the state or from labor unions, capping a long-running investigation into one of New York’s most powerful political figures. … (Complete Story)

WASHINGTON — Paper piles up quickly at the Federal Election Commission, where employees thumb through campaign finance reports in quiet cubicles, keying numbers into a database. … (Complete Story)

WASHINGTON — Barack Obama may change Washington when he takes over the White House next month, but when it comes to paying for his inauguration, the president-elect is mostly doing it the old-fashioned way—putting the arm on wealthy supporters and promising VIP treatment on the big day in return. … (Complete Story)

Tennessee got high marks for the electronic campaign finance program it launched earlier this year and was voted “most improved” among states by the Campaign Disclosure Project, an annual survey conducted by the University of California and funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts. … (Complete Story)

CHICAGO — The governor of Illinois brazenly put up for sale his appointment of Barack Obama’s successor in the United States Senate, federal prosecutors said Tuesday. … (Complete Story)

The predawn rousting of Gov. Rod Blagojevich from his Ravenswood Manor home Tuesday marked a stunning climax to a tale of alleged public corruption unmatched in Illinois' storied history of elected scoundrels and thrust the state into an unprecedented political crisis. … (Complete Story)

CANADA'S FORMER director of elections, Jean Pierre Kingsley, is encouraging Jamaica to press ahead with plans to fund political parties from the public purse. … (Complete Story)

The Democratic Party, whose candidate Ts.,Elbegdorj won at the presidential election 2009, spent Tg2.9 billion in its campaign, according to the party’s General Secretary D.Erdenebat. … (Complete Story)

KUALA LUMPUR, June 25 — Umno is mulling over whether to allow a quarter of its three million members to vote in future party elections, in an effort to fight money politics. Under current rules, less than 1 per cent, or about 2,800 members, choose Umno leaders. … (Complete Story)

A YouTube video that sparked government accusations about Russian financing for recent opposition street protests appears to have prompted a proposal by President Mikheil Saakasvhili for changes in regulations on political party financing. … (Complete Story)

KUALA LUMPUR, June 24 – The disqualification of Datuk Seri Ali Rustam’s bid for the Umno deputy presidency may yet see charges of bribery being brought to court. … (Complete Story)

RAMAZAN BASHARDOST’S election campaign seems better suited for a student government race than a drive for the presidency of Afghanistan. Each day, dozens of volunteers visit his headquarters, a dust-blown tent on a dirt road, eager to hear his anticorruption platform. … (Complete Story)

BEIJING - A NEW wave of anti-corruption campaigns is sweeping through China, say analysts in the wake of the downfall of two high-ranking officials. … (Complete Story)

TOKYO (AFP) — Japan's former opposition leader faced a fresh blow Friday when a businessman admitted in court he had given illegal donations to the politician's office in return for public works contracts. … (Complete Story)

Vote buying topped the list of election violations investigated by police during the nine months of election campaigning preceding the April 9 polls. … (Complete Story)

The forthcoming general elections is very important since it comes in the wake of progress and positive developments on one hand and recent problems in the stock market and real estate, lower corporate profits, layoffs and scams, terrorism and extremism, on the other hand. … (Complete Story)

Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who has hinted he will run in a crucial election in August, said foreigners exaggerate the extent of corruption in Afghanistan for political reasons, while publicly announcing his earnings on Thursday. … (Complete Story)

Umno information chief Tan Sri Muhammad Muhamad Taib has urged the disciplinary board to announced the names of candidates involved in money politics before the party elections. … (Complete Story)

A businessman suspected of graft claims to have given Rp 3 billion (US$249,895) to House of Representatives lawmaker Abdul Hadi Djamal to help him keep his legislative seat in the upcoming polls. … (Complete Story)

Campaign finance reports filed by the political parties contesting next month’s legislative elections have raised more questions than answers, observers say, leaving many to wonder how parties funding nightly television advertising spots might have so little money to their name. … (Complete Story)

Japanese prosecutors raided the constituency office Wednesday of opposition leader and election favourite Ichiro Ozawa, who dismissed calls to quit in a growing scandal over political donations. … (Complete Story)

Disclosure rules vary widely for lawmakers around the world … (Complete Story)

KUALA LUMPUR -- Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Datuk Seri Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz has asked former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad to provide proof that money politics was involved in the race for the Umno deputy presidency. … (Complete Story)

The Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA) is investigating nine high profile cases in Kedah involving politicians who allegedly gave delegates money during the Umno divisional elections. … (Complete Story)

BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) — A Thai court found former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra guilty of corruption Tuesday and sentenced him to two years in prison, deepening the country's paralyzing political crisis. … (Complete Story)

MANILA, Philippines—Several senators, including three presidential aspirants, violated election laws on campaign advertisement spending and radio and television airtime limits during the 2007 mid-term elections, a study by an election watchdog said on Wednesday. … (Complete Story)

NAKHON RATCHASIMA, Thailand: There is an old story here in Thailand's vast, rice-growing hinterland about politicians who handed out a pair of slippers at election time - one slipper before the vote and the other after they were successfully elected. … (Complete Story)

PRESIDENT Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, faced with allegations that bags of cash were handed to governors and lawmakers to block an impeachment bid against her, has ordered an investigation, her spokesman said yesterday. … (Complete Story)

Election Commissioner Brig Gen (rtd.) M Sakhawat Hussein yesterday said categorically that the EC is working to hold an 'absolutely free, fair and credible election, not to serve the interest of any class or group'. “Our intention and desire is clear. We have not taken the responsibility to serve or supervise any purpose of any interest-seeking class or group”, he said. … (Complete Story)

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Just when it seemed Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono was making significant progress in tackling the country's endemic culture of corruption, he and Vice President Jusuf Kalla have been linked to allegations that they received illegal off-budget funds to finance their 2004 election campaign. … (Complete Story)

Despite heated debate over funding sources in the 2004 election, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono will not order a thorough investigation into an alleged illegal inflow of funds into his Democratic Party, a close aide said Saturday. … (Complete Story)

Amien Rais's admission that he received money from Rokhmin Dahuri to finance his 2004 presidential election campaign has supported allegations that two other candidates also received funds from the former fisheries minister and current graft suspect. … (Complete Story)

No one disputes that the Philippines is mired in economic and political crises. There is endemic poverty that despite government hype everyone knows is nowhere near being overcome. Around 65 million Filipinos struggle to live on P96 or less a day, according to the latest 2003 Family Income and Expenditure Survey (FIES) of the National Statistics Office (NSO). The net worth of just the ten richest Filipinos is equivalent to the combined annual income of the poorest 49 million Filipinos. The situation can only get worse with corporate profits rising even as joblessness is at a sustained historic high. … (Complete Story)

Election-time funding of political parties by companies is set to become more transparent. Apex industry chamber CII plans to set up an industry-wide election fund, managed by an independent trust, that would disburse election funds contributed voluntarily by companies. The fund would be part of the chamber’s ‘Integrity India’ campaign that aims to counter corruption and ensure greater transparency in socio-economic issues. … (Complete Story)

That was the amount requested by one minor party in submissions to the independent review of party funding carried out by businessman John Goulter, who recommended an extra $2 million a year to go into party coffers, taking the taxpayer- funded pool of party funding to $16 million a year. That is separate to the $3.2 million broadcasting allocation. EDITORIAL B4 … (Complete Story)

A former prominent PASOK official yesterday gave the clearest indication yet that Greece’s political parties bend the rules on campaign contributions when he was called to testify in connection with the alleged payment of almost 500,000 euros to the Socialists by Siemens Hellas. … (Complete Story)

Commons authorities have published the details after a long-running Freedom of Information battle. … (Complete Story)

Funding of political parties in Kosovo remains very mysterious and with a lot of doubts. Funding of campaigns is not made transparent, while sponsorship that comes from business or from other sources are not made transparent either. … (Complete Story)

Gabon's late president, Omar Bongo Ondimba, funnelled money into Jacques Chirac's 1981 presidential campaign, according to Valerie Giscard d'Estaing, the former French president – an allegation that Mr Chirac dismissed yesterday as "totally unfounded". … (Complete Story)

Transparency International Albania, the local branch of the international watchdog, has called on Albania political parties to make public the details of campaign donations and how they are used. … (Complete Story)

In Bulgaria’s June 2009 European Parliament elections, alleging that other parties were buying votes appeared to be the game that anyone could play – and some seemed keen to alleged that vote-buying was the game almost everyone was playing. Ahead of the elections, the issue of vote-buying was being closely watched, against a background of similar allegations in elections in recent years. … (Complete Story)

The government of Kosovo had decided that the behaviour of the political parties in the next local elections should be held in accordance with the new law on financing of the political parties to be adopted soon by the Kosovo Assembly. … (Complete Story)

A survey by Open Society Foundation, published only days before the country goes to vote for the EU parliament, found 20 per cent of Bulgarians ready to sell their vote, although only six per cent would vote as instructed. … (Complete Story)

BELGRADE -- Transparency Serbia's Nemanja Nanadić says it's "very important" that the fight against corruption has received support of President Boris Tadić. … (Complete Story)

They violated the law, but will not be punished because there are no sanctions. It is clear that the laws exist for the EU, Petrovic said. … (Complete Story)

HM Revenue and Customs has begun a fresh investigation into whether MPs could be liable for millions of pounds of unpaid tax for items they claimed on expenses, The Telegraph can disclose. … (Complete Story)

The SDP issued a statement on the financing of the campaign, saying 95 percent was financed with membership fees and donations. … (Complete Story)

As a scandal over legislators’ expense claims shakes Britain’s political elite and raises questions about the probity of Parliament, the junior justice minister stepped down Friday pending an inquiry into expenses claims relating to a second home. … (Complete Story)

There are no signs that Hungary's political parties have the political will to reform campaign financing to make it more transparent, British Ambassador to Hungary Gregory Dorey told a workshop on party and campaign financing in Budapest on Wednesday. … (Complete Story)

Bulgaria, under pressure from the European Union to stamp out rampant corruption and preparing for a parliamentary election in July, on Thursday doubled the punishment for organising and carrying out vote buying. … (Complete Story)

Disclosure rules vary widely for lawmakers around the world … (Complete Story)

Nick Clegg today backed calls for tougher rules for peers by saying that the "erminegate" affair revealed "extraordinary protection enjoyed by the political class" under the current constitutional arrangements. … (Complete Story)

Reporting from London -- Their robes are red, their fur cuffs are white and now a corruption scandal has Britain's House of Lords feeling blue. … (Complete Story)

Those elected to local office in last October's municipal elections had until Monday to submit reports on campaign financing. However many apparently left it to the last minute. … (Complete Story)

As mayor, he was able to turn around non-functional La Paz, he is now one of the leading global figures in the fight against corruption and tackles the issue through market-like principles. Seeing corruption as a development issue rather than one to address with a police force, his model is now being implemented in pilot countries throughout Southeast Europe. … (Complete Story)

The age of deference is dead. If our masters needed further proof, then the unprecedented collapse of Gordon Brown’s approval ratings has provided it. … (Complete Story)

Gordon Brown hailed the party political funding proposals put forward by Sir Hayden Phillips as a "comprehensive framework for reform". … (Complete Story)

Ever since Tony Blair appeared on television a decade ago to apologise for taking a £1m donation to Labour from the formula one boss, Bernie Ecclestone, Labour has been tarnished with sleaze. … (Complete Story)

It was as had been promised. The Corruption Prevention and Combating Bureau (KNAB) yesterday published its report on financial violations committed by political parties in advance of the 9th Saeima [Parliament] election [in 2006]. Among the 19 parties and alliances which ran for office last year, only eight committed no financial sins. The others have been found to have departed from the rules to a greater or lesser extent. … (Complete Story)

The prospect of cross-party agreement over changing the rules on political party funding looks increasingly distant amid a row over union funding. … (Complete Story)

A European Commission proposal to allow European political parties to finance campaign activities for the 2009 elections was backed by the EP Constitutional Affairs Committee on Monday. If approved, the new legislation would improve the financial stability of European parties, and thus facilitate long-term planning. It would also permit the creation of European political foundations. … (Complete Story)

President Stjepan Mesic on Saturday [13 October] signed a petition calling for the transparent funding of political parties in Croatia. … (Complete Story)

POLITICAL CANDIDATES HAVE POSSIBLY FLOUTED ELECTORAL SPENDING LIMITS OF LM600 ON THEIR INDIVIDUAL CAMPAIGNS FOR DECADES. BUT WHAT THE GOVERNMENT WILL DO ABOUT THIS STATE OF AFFAIRS HAS YET TO BE BROUGHT UP IN A CABINET MEETING THAT WILL TACKLE PARTY FUNDING. MATTHEW VELLA AND BIANCA CARUANA REPORTING … (Complete Story)

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Bulgarian Prosecutor General Boris Velchev said on Sunday he would ask the EU to send experts to Sofia to follow the investigation into a high-level corruption scandal. … (Complete Story)

BEIRUT // Ghassan, a 31-year old from Beirut, remains one of Lebanon’s undecided voters with just two days remaining before Sunday’s tight parliamentary race. In fact, he is sure he won’t be deciding which party to vote for until about an hour before the polling ends. … (Complete Story)

DAMASCUS - Iraq is abuzz with stories of new arrests, but not of former Ba'athists or members of the so-called Sunni insurgency, rather it is officials who are part of the post-Saddam Hussein era. Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has launched a massive anti-corruption campaign, promising to bring senior officials to justice be they Sunni, Shi'ite or Kurd. … (Complete Story)

Beirut - Michel Aoun, polyglot former military commander and mainstay of the Lebanese Christian community, is running for reform, with his Free Patriotic Party, in Sunday's parliamentary election. … (Complete Story)

ANKARA - When it comes to the prevalence of corruption, the public has little confidence in public institutions, believing that it is common for public servants to receive gifts in exchange for providing services. However, improvements are visible. … (Complete Story)

Tripoli will play a key role in the aftermath of the Lebanese elections as it is a traditional seat of Sunni power and generally decides the prime minister – which is why the three big contestants are spending a lot of money in its impoverished streets. … (Complete Story)

BEIRUT: The election law passed last fall to govern Lebanon's summer polls fell short of many observers' hopes, but it did include several major reforms. One of the most important changes, according to election experts, was the creation of a Supervisory Commission. … (Complete Story)

BEIRUT, Lebanon — It is election season in Lebanon, and Hussein H., a jobless 24-year-old from south Beirut, is looking forward to selling his vote to the highest bidder. … (Complete Story)

Disclosure rules vary widely for lawmakers around the world … (Complete Story)

As mayor, he was able to turn around non-functional La Paz, he is now one of the leading global figures in the fight against corruption and tackles the issue through market-like principles. Seeing corruption as a development issue rather than one to address with a police force, his model is now being implemented in pilot countries throughout Southeast Europe. … (Complete Story)

SANA’A, July 5 — The International Foundation for Electoral Systems, or IFES, has revealed its concerns about delaying the formation of a new election committee to observe the 2009 parliamentary elections. … (Complete Story)