Foreign money could influence political parties: CDD warns

A single foreign donor with no vote in Fiji could finance an entire political party’s election campaign if Parliament passes proposed changes to Fiji’s political financing laws, the Centre for Democracy and Dialogue (CDD) has warned.

CDD raised the concern before the Standing Committee on Justice, Law and Human Rights on Monday while making submissions on the Political Parties Amendment Bill, Bill No. 31 of 2026.

CDD executive director Nilesh Lal said the Bill would remove the existing $10,000 annual donation cap and allow foreign individuals to donate without limit.

“Tomorrow you could have Elon Musk come in and donate $3 million to a political party,” Mr Lal told the committee.

“And then dictating how that party will potentially be governing the country when they are in power.”

Lal said with the proposed $3 million spending ceiling for a political party, a single donor could potentially finance its entire campaign.

He said the Bill would also allow individual candidates to spend up to $300,000 each.

With 55 candidates, CDD calculated that total campaign spending could reach $19.5 million when combined with the party allowance.

“That is quite practically not a ceiling at all,” Mr Lal said.

CDD also raised concerns that foreign donors would only be required to disclose their donations 60 days after polling, meaning disclosure would come after the election.

It cited International IDEA in saying 70 per cent of countries worldwide banned foreign political donations, while 49 per cent capped domestic donations.

CDD also warned that criminal proceeds, including drug money, could potentially be disguised as legitimate political donations.

“The purpose of political finance law is to prevent wealth from becoming political power,” Mr Lal said.

CDD urged the committee to reject the proposed changes.

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