Chapter 1: International Standards Conduct that provided for the establishment of monitoring committees.267 These committees offer major election stakeholders (parties, the PPRC, civil society and the police) a forum to discuss and resolve conflicts that could lead to violence at the local level. Since the 2007 presidential and parliamentary elections, IFES has provided assistance to the 14 District Code of Conduct Monitoring Committees to assist their work to reduce tension and conflict.268 Political parties should provide for transparent measures that will lessen corruption or undue influence. The E.U. observer group recommended to Nicaragua after the 2007 General elections (presidential, parliamentary, and municipal) to set up “transparent and accountable mechanisms to record, disclose and audit the donations to political parties and their expenditure during the electoral campaign.”269 The 2007 electoral reform in Mexico took this element of funding transparency into account as well and established within the Instituto Federal Electoral an autonomous and specialized entity in charge of the surveillance of political party finances. Thus, political parties must disclose all the information on the origin, amount, destination and application of the funding received by any source.270 Political finance deserves a separate and more focused discussion that cannot be developed extensively in this guide.271 Such measures may help in the long term to bring more transparency to the electoral system and to avoid disputes dealing with political parties’ activities as well. iii. Dissemination of information to the general public Political parties should also disseminate this same information to the general public. It should be incumbent upon parties to improve voter education and the understanding of the complaint adjudication process.272 PoSee generally About Us, Political Parties Registration Commission of Sierra Leone, http:// www.pprcsl.info/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&Id=13&ItemId=30 (last visited Jan. 8, 2011). 268 See Sierra Leone: Strengthening Sierra’s Capacity to Regulate Political Parties, IFES, http:// www.ifes.org/Content/Projects/Africa/Sierra-Leone/Strengthening-Sierra-Leones-Capacityto-Regulate-Political-Parties.aspx (last visited Jan. 8, 2011). 269 E.U. Nicaragua Report, supra note 38, at 67. 270 30 Essential Questions, supra note 256, Question 18. 271 See Magnus Ohman & Hani Zainulbhai, IFES, Political Finance Regulation: The Global Experience (2009). 272 CEPPS/IRI Liberia Report, supra note 263, at 1. 267 83

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