Parties’ electoral behavior is compromised by unequal access to financial resources, study

The budgetary subventions are monopolized by the large parties and this affects the equality of chances for the electoral players, says the study “Assessing Financing of Political Parties and Electoral Campaigns”, which was presented by IDIS “Viitorul” on July 23, Info-Prim reports. According to the author Sergiu Lipcean, this spring’s polls confirm that the financial resources of the electoral contenders were largely concentrated in the hands of several small groups of persons that usually top the electoral lists. “The financing from the state budget does not ensure equal chances for participation in the political life. The regulations about the budget allocations intended for political parties favor the ruling party, which benefits from over 50% of the budgetary subventions,” the study says. The cost of the early elections per capita is 50.89 lei, while for a cast vote – 84.57 lei. “The given figures sweep away the speculations about the exaggerated costs of organizing the early elections that are a burden to the state budget, as it is said. By comparison, the repair of the Parliament and the Presidential Office will cost at least 500 million lei. This money is paid from the state budget,” said Sergiu Lipcean, quoted in a communiqué issued by IDIS. The abusive use of administrative resources is a form of political corruption at the highest level, the expert said. According to his estimates, in the April polls the PCRM used public media resources to the value of 5.841 million lei, which is 86.3% of the campaigning costs of this party. “The participation in campaign by state officials that did not leave their posts for the period of electoral campaign costs 7.473 million lei, which represents the electoral budget of the PCRM for the previous campaign,” the quoted source said. The study “Assessing Financing of Political Parties and Electoral Campaigns in Moldova” contains recommendations concerning the financing of political parties, like: reducing the ceiling of donations to parties, allowing the Moldovans that are abroad to make political donations, improving access to public financial resources for new and small parties.