Skip to content
openDemocracy
Subscribe

Opinion: The Electoral Commission’s DUP decision shows again how the rules that should protect our democracy are failing

The UK’s elections watchdog has decided it “does not have grounds to open an investigation” into the DUP’s mysterious £435,000 Brexit donation—once more raising questions about how British democracy is regulated.

By openDemocracy investigations
Published:
Share
DUP Election poster © Copyright Rossographer and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.
DUP Election poster © Copyright Rossographer and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.

© Copyright Rossographer, Creative Commons Licence.

Here at openDemocracy we have been talking about the Democratic Unionist Party’s mysterious £435,000 Brexit donation for a long time. Since breaking the story in February 2017, we have published dozens of follow-ups. Among them have been serious questions about how much the party knew about who gave them the money andto direct links between the front man for the donation and Saudi intelligence services.

Then, in June, BBC Northern Ireland’s Spotlight team broadcast an hour-long investigation. Would the Electoral Commission, finally, investigate the DUP’s Brexit donation? This week we found out that it will not—but quite why is still unclear.

This article is published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International licence. If you have any queries about republishing please contact us. Please check individual images for licensing details.

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0