Volt Malta initiative tracks Facebook ad spending by political parties, leaders

> Demonstrate how much each party and party leader is spending on Facebook related ads

> Plans to expand on the project to include all candidates, and monthly summaries

> Volt advocates for further transparency, and improved regulations on political parties.

Volt Malta launched #PolitikaOnesta - politikaonesta.org, a webpage that uses Facebook’s public data, to show how much each political party and party leader is spending on Facebook ads over various periods of time (1, 7, 30 and 90 days). Volt views transparency of party finances with utmost importance.

The party believes that the public should be able to easily access information on how much their political representatives receive and spend. It also believes that political parties should not be able to circumvent legal obligations of reporting their donation income through companies operated by the political parties such as MediaLink of Partit Nazzjonalista and ONE of Partit Laburista. 

Any and all finances of a political party should be regulated through party financing law only, and not a mix of party financing law and corporate law.

‘‘Political parties should demonstrate that they are aware of what is legally acceptable with clear donation policies on their websites,’’ commented Arnas Lasys Co-President

‘It’s impossible to truly know how much money PN or PL receives, their donation reports do not paint a clear picture,’’ said Alexia DeBono Co-President

‘‘We hope this inspires political parties to adopt a healthy approach of transparency and accountability towards the public, ’’ said Kass Mallia Vice President

Read about this article on MaltaToday.