The legislative body in 2015 adopted significant changes to the legislation on political party and election campaign funding, but analyses show the reform didn’t achieve its goal. Representatives of the Partnership for Development Center and of the National Youth Council of Moldova consider the way in which the political parties and election campaigns are funded directly influences the involvement of young people and women in politics as these two categories of people in Moldovan politics are less wealthy than the male politicians.
Partnership for Development Center consultant Alina Andronache, in a news conference at IPN, said of the three major objectives, particular progress was made only in ensuring transparency in parties’ incomes and costs. The capping of donations didn’t reduce the costs of campaigns and parties, while the allocation of state funds for party funding didn’t reduce financing from private sources.
According to Alina Andronache, analyses showed that the incomes used by competitors in election campaigns increased during the last seven years. In an electoral cycle alone, the incomes and costs declared by election runners in 2010 rose 2.04 times compared with 2009, while in 2014 increased 3.56 times compared with 2010. The incomes declared in the election campaign prior to the local general elections of 2015 grew 2.24 times compared with 2011.
In 2016, the incomes declared by political parties to the Central Election Commission came to 96.3 million lei. During the first six months of 2017 alone, the political parties already declared 80.9 million lei. Alina Andronache said when the financial costs of political life increase, the financial capacity of candidates becomes an essential element in obtaining high-ranking posts. As the young people and women in Moldovan politics are less well-off compared with men from politics, this is a significant barrier to ensuring the equitable representation of young people and women in the decision-making process.
The representatives of the Partnership for Development Center and of the National Youth Council of Moldova formulated a number of proposals concerning the political party and election campaign funding reform. They suggest that the annual incomes of a political party from membership dues and donations should be reduced 30 times, while the cap on donations 50 times. They also propose that 20% of the annual state budget allocations should be used to promote and encourage the participation of women in politics and elections, while 10% of the allocations should go to promote and encourage young people. Another proposal is for the parties that have women’s and youth organizations should delegate the responsibility for managing the respective funds to them.
