About Political
Advert Repository
The Political Advert Repository (PAdRe or Padre) is an IEC initiative, supported by Media Monitoring Africa (MMA). This initiative is in line with the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights’ Guidelines On Access To Information And Elections In Africa.
Social media plays an increasingly important role, it can be a space where political parties share messages about their parties.
Because social media platforms tailor the content we each receive through algorithms it can be difficult to get an idea of what parties are saying to others.
As social media becomes more pervasive it is important to know not just which political party adverts there are but also how much parties are spending.
The Electoral Commission of South Africa (the IEC) an independent organisation
established under chapter nine of the Constitution.
It conducts elections to the National Assembly, provincial legislatures and municipal
councils. It has a mandate to ensure free and fair elections.
As part of that mandate, the IEC promotes access to information in the elections, and the
Padre is an initiative that supports access to information by providing a repository for
official political party adverts that can be accessed by the public.
The MMA is supporting this initiative in line with its mandate and organisational
objectives, which includes ensuring free and fair elections, promoting media freedom and
overall contributing to a functional democracy.
MMA is also contributing because of and through its expertise and work on mis- and
disinformation, and expertise and experience in developing and building digital literacy
campaigns such as Real411, Rover, Open and Disclose and KnowNews
