Table 5: Results of the active publicity

Source: Prepared by the author

Contrary to what happened with active publicity, shortcomings were found in terms of access to information, as none of the parties had a system for requests for information with response times and a regulated system. The only option available for this purpose was the various email accounts to which users could write if they wanted some information. However, as there is no established system with rules and response periods, citizens might not receive a response, or may receive one too late.

The quality of the search engines on these websites was taken into account and the most advanced was that of the PP, as it allowed for information searches according to subject and date. It was striking that Ciudadanos did not even have a search engine, which nowadays is considered essential. As for updating, this is also an element that must be improved by the political parties, since only Unidas Podemos included the date on which the information had been updated in some of the content, and even so, these dates were somewhat distant (even a year before the date on which the analysis was carried out). It is necessary for the parties to further update their content and to indicate this in their web portals.

The use of easily understood, non-technical language was followed by all the parties, although none of them had a specific tool for clarifying specific terms (for example, pop-up text boxes).

Re-using information was one of the weak points of the political parties, although Unidas Podemos stood out as the exception with the use of Tableau software for the visualisation of data in a more dynamic way. In spite of this, however, this software was only available on the Transparency Portal and not on the rest of the website.

As far as accessibility is concerned, the websites of Ciudadanos and Unidas Podemos were the only ones that published in languages other than Spanish, with the latter being the only party to publish in English as well.

An assessment was also made as to whether the political parties express their commitment to transparency by publishing the results of rankings or agreements on this subject, which was carried out only by the PSOE and Ciudadanos. Unidas Podemos mentioned compliance with the Transparency Law in its ‘Straightforward Accounts” section, while the PSOE had a small section on its website in which it defended the improvements required by the law. Accountability is one of the pending obligations of political parties, as none of the parties published the degree of compliance with their electoral