Signing candidacy acceptance statement as a prerequisite for running for a public office
Although it is often taken for granted, not all candidates are familiar with their obligations and the party principles they are expected to uphold
by Emir Bilalović
In theory there are many different approaches, methods, criteria, and indicators used to measure political party integrity. For purpose of this program, I had to be a bit more precise.
In the next 4 minutes reading I will focus on the institutional party development area, as a mean for improving the party integrity, more precisely the internal democracy subarea; and even more precisely on the transparency and accountability as a tool which can enable improvement of the party integrity in the multiple areas and aspects.
Internal Transparency and Accountability Mechanisms in a political party are not directly visible from outside, and therefore can be easily treated as not-so-important, especially in the growing new democracies.
Furthermore, accountability in Bosnian language (same is in Serbian, Croatian, Montenegrin) does not have precise translation, but rather is translated using more general noun “odgovornost” which is quite wider term, covering at least accountability, responsibility, and liability. Could that be the cause of such a low value the accountability has in our societies, especially in the political parties as an integral part of a society?
Regardless of what would be that cause, there are strong reasons for building up the accountability mechanisms within a party. And parties are doing it, on paper. All parties have statutory documents, many have the Code of Ethics, and some even have public policies documented. Nevertheless, quite often we witness public officials’ unethical behavior once they are elected or appointed to a public office.
If you take enough time and read publicly available statutory and other documents of parties in Bosnia and Herzegovina, you will not find any statement advocating illegal actions, wrongdoing, or unethical conduct. As in many other areas, the problem is not law (or internal statutory document of a political party, since they differ mainly in the level of generality and legal competence / professionality of an author and contributors).
The problem is usually the implementation and especially lack of enforcement instruments.
But before we focus on implementation and enforcement as goals, should we first spend some effort on making the most important parts of party’s statutory documents and codes seamlessly accessible, understood, acknowledged, and accepted by all candidates?
One could expect that a potential party member reads and accepts the party values and goals embedded in the statute and codes, before signing in for membership. In real life even party’s candidates running for a public office can be surprised with important articles in party’s statute or a code. Knowing how tedious party documents could be, it is not hard to imagine a party member or even a candidate for a public office, not being aware of every article in a party statute and codes and wrongly assume that party documents must be aligned with his/her common sense and personal values. (Why shouldn’t they?!)
There were some attempts to use that argument by the “accused” party official as defense in internal disciplinary processes.
Due to a basic legal principle “ignorance of the law is no excuse” or “ignorantia juris non excusat” in Latin, such a defense would not stand on court and hopefully also not in the internal party’s disciplinary processes.
Nevertheless, it is worthy to invest some time and effort to mitigate the risk of misunderstanding. The carefully worded statement template that would be a prerequisite for getting a candidacy could be an easy and quick-win solution. Such a statement would bring to candidates’ attention the most important articles of the statute, codes, rulebooks, and other party documents. Although they could be obvious, but principles and party regulations contented in such a statement, should present expectations, which party and its members have toward the candidates, on a transparent and direct manner.
Acceptance is the main characteristic of accountability. A party should make sure that a potential candidate understands, acknowledge, and by signing the statement, accept the party statutory documents, codes, and other internal documents before it can be become official party’s candidate.
Such a signed statement generally does not have any legal consequences and in case of a breach of conduct it can merely serve as a base for calling the public official for political accountability and/or starting an internal disciplinary process by party’s Ethics committee or similar body.
In case of negative response from an “accused” public official, party can use such a statement for its own protection, as a mean to individualize the accountability for wrongdoing (internally but also publicly, if necessary) and for building awareness among other party members, future candidates (internally).
To prevent misuse of the statement, it must be carefully crafted, taking special care of candidate’s human rights and freedom of speech.
