The annual incomes of a political party from membership dues and donations should be reduced 30 times, while the cap on donations made by a private individual or a legal entity to one or several parties in a budgetary year should be decreased 50 times. Such proposals were formulated by the Partnership for Development Center and the National Youth Council of Moldova.
Partnership for Development Center programs director Rodica Ivascu said the annual incomes of a political party from membership dues and donations now cannot exceed 0.3% of the state budget revenues for a particular year. The limit should be reduced to 0.01%. As regards the donations made by a private individual in a budgetary year, now these cannot exceed 200 average official salaries and 400 official salaries in case of legal entities. The proposal is to reduce the cap on donations to four average official salaries for private individuals and to eight salaries for legal entities.
Rodica Ivascu said the parties now can annually receive financing from the state budget through the Central Election Commission, based on regulations approved by this. The size of such allocations is approved by the annual state budget law, in the amount of at most 0.2% of the state budget revenues. The allocations are distributed to parties proportionally to their results in the parliamentary elections (50%) and the local elections (50%). The percentage quota should be decreased to 0.1% of the state budget revenues, while the 50% in the case of parliamentary and local elections should be divided as follows: 35% proportionally to the results achieved in elections, 10% proportionally to the number of women elected in elections and 5% proportionally to the number of elected young people.
The representatives of the Partnership for Development Center and the National Youth Council of Moldova also suggest 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.
Partnership for Development Center consultant Alina Andronache said the changes are needed given that the financial costs of political life increase, but the young people and women in Moldovan politics are less ‘wealthy’ compared with men from politics and this is a significant barrier to ensuring the equitable representation of young people and women in the decision-making process.
Secretary general of the National Youth Council of Moldova Igor Ciurea said the representation of young people is now much below 10% and there are a series of barriers. A study carried out by the Partnership for Development Center shows the costs are the biggest obstacle faced by an electoral contender, while the young people are not those who have much money.
