• • • • No contributor can donate through a third party. Parties and candidates must also be required to account publicly for the uses to which they put public and donated funds. In line with regulations and best practices elsewhere, foreign donations to political parties and candidates must be prohibited. Stiff penalties must be imposed for infractions of the law governing party financing. In conclusion, political parties, like biological organisms, need to nurtured in order for them to grow and develop into healthy and functional entities. For this, a conducive operating and institutional environment is a minimum condition. A regulatory framework can set parameters within which all credible political parties can gladiate for power, market their electoral wares to the public while allowing the court of public opinion as freely and fairly expressed in the ballot to be the final arbiter who shall govern the demos. Regulation of political parties does not of necessity vitiate these tenets; but controlling may well do. 5