"Want to know who is financing the presidential candidates? You can't. The Accounts Authority hides the identity of donors" (with José Luís Moreira de Silva)

‘Candidates have up to 60 days after receiving state subsidies to submit their accounts to the Political Accounts and Financing Authority, which is responsible for oversight, including a list identifying individual donors and their respective donations,’ according to constitutionalist José Luís Moreira da Silva in statements to ECO, citing Law No. 19/2003 on the financing of political parties and election campaigns. This means that, in practice, ‘the names of donors can be hidden until after the elections,’ warns the same expert.

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For José Luís Moreira da Silva, the position of the Accounts Authority represents a ‘risk of lack of transparency’. ‘In this process, of potential conflict of rights, transparency has a higher value than the principle of privacy,’ considers the constitutionalist. ‘It is true that donors have the right to privacy, but they chose to donate to a campaign that is public, which advocates transparency in donations,’ he emphasises.