The practice of running in parliamentary elections as an independent candidate in single-member constituencies and on lists of candidates for the national constituency is vicious, experts of Promo-LEX Association say in an analysis. According to them, first of all this creates indirect and unequal opportunities for election campaign funding for parties or electoral blocs that would allow such situations. Secondly, preconditions are created for obtaining the right and the possibility of simultaneously using two electoral funds. The new legal provisions on the electoral system create conditions for promoting practices that affect such fundamental elements of electoral democracy as equality of chances for electoral process participants and the voters’ freedom to form the opinion, as it is stipulated in the Code of Good Electoral Practices, IPN reports.
The experts of Promo-LEX note that under the new Election Code, the parliamentary elections will be conducted based on a mixed electoral system in a national constituency and in single-member constituencies. The candidates for MP in the national constituency are registered by the Central Election Commission, while the candidates for MP in single-member constituencies, including the independent ones, are registered by district electoral councils. At the same time, Article 79, par. (6) of the Code provides that the person included in the list of candidates on behalf of an election runner for elections based on the national constituency can also run in one single-member constituency on behalf of the same election runner or as an independent.
This way, the rules of financing elections runners in the conditions of the mixed electoral system create a favorable legal context for avoiding the reporting of the amounts spent to indirectly promote the party. This becomes possible when a person runs on the list of a party in the national constituency and also in the single-member constituency as an independent. In such a situation, the money spent to promote the apparently independent candidate indirectly brings added value to the party on whose list the person runs simultaneously and with which this can be associated by the voters.
The analysis authors say a person who runs on the list in the national constituency and in a single-member constituency, contrary to the principle of equality of chances, could benefit from double financing, which is from financial resources from the party’s electoral fund and from resources from the independent candidate’s electoral fund. This money can represent almost two ceilings for a single-member constituency. This is an inequality in relation to independents from single-member constituencies who are not on lists for the national constituency.
The experts of Promo-LEX note that Parliament set a three-month period during which the Government is to submit proposals for adjusting the legislation to the new Election Code and for improving this if deficiencies are identified. This period expires on October 21, 2017 and matches the period of at least a year before the elections recommended by the Venice Commission, after which it is not recommended amending the electoral legislation. The Association is hopeful that the authorities will remedy the situation and will make the necessary changes so that no conflict, uncertain and interpretable situations appear in the upcoming legislative elections.
