The Partners for Transparency Foundation (PFT) released its first report to assess electoral financing and spending in the first phase of the Egyptian parliamentary elections, which deals with a quantitative analysis of the results of field monitoring carried out by the “Our Voices Against Your Money” initiative team in two electoral constituencies in two governorates, which is the Muharram Bey constituency in Alexandria that is nominated for Its seats are 36 candidates, and the Faiyum city constituency in the Fayoum governorate has 27 candidates for its seats.

Advertising cost
The first observation that the followers of the initiative observed on the candidates in the two constituencies under monitoring is their lack of commitment to record the accounts related to their electoral campaigns in regular records in the manner specified by the Law on the Exercise of Political Rights, which is the violation of the vast majority of candidates in the two constituencies, which opens the door to skepticism In the real values of the election campaign expenditures for these candidates.

Blackout on the bank account
The second observation was the lack of transparency and disclosure of the various aspects of the candidate’s election campaign, especially in the Muharram Bey district, which was evident in the majority of the candidates refusing to disclose the donations they received, or their denial that they had received such donations.

Also evident in the two constituencies is the reluctance of the vast majority of candidates to declare their bank account number, the real values of their campaign expenditures, and the sources of funding for the voters in their constituencies, and although the Law on the Exercise of Political Rights includes a clear loophole in that, as it does not lay down regulations in this regard, harmonization Political, integrity and transparency rules required candidates to adhere to this.

Electoral advertising
As for the third observation, it is related to the practice of electoral campaigning at other than its legal timings, and it is the most prominent observation in the Muharram Bey district than in the city of Fayoum, and the initiative’s followers confirmed that most of the Muharram Bey constituency candidates started electoral campaigning at other than its official timings, which is a clear violation of the regulatory rules. Contained in the Law on the Exercise of Political Rights.

Election bribes
The fourth note included the volume of electoral bribes, which were recorded on a small scale in the Muharram Bey governorate in Alexandria, indicating that the campaign followers did not record similar cases in the Fayoum city district.

Limited use of mosques
The fifth observation is positive, as the initiative’s followers did not record any cases of using NGOs or government facilities in the propaganda process in the two departments under surveillance, while limited cases of using places of worship in Muharram Bek district in Alexandria were reported.

The absence of a financial accountant
The sixth observation revealed that the campaigns of the vast majority of candidates within the two constituencies do not include legal accountants in the manner specified by the Law on the Exercise of Political Rights, which opens the door to random funding and spending, the formality of preparing financial reports later, and reducing confidence rates in the reality of revenues and expenditures related to candidates' campaigns .

Fayoum is more committed
The seventh and final observation noted the difference between the two constituencies in the extent and nature of the legal violations related to financing and electoral spending, as the Fayoum district was much better than the Muharram Bek district, which indicates that political money was more present, and the related violations are more prominent in the Muharram Bek district. It was reported in the city of Fayoum, and the cultural, social and economic context in both constituencies may have an important role in this.