CEC finds faults in financing of political parties in previous campaigns

The previous election campaigns saw violations of the electoral legislation concerning financing of the political parties, said Iurie Ciocan, Secretary of the Central Election Commission, at a seminar destined for treasures and secretaries of political parties, as well as representatives of the local public administration, Info-Prim Neo reports. According to Ciocan, there were cases where parties ordered political advertising on television, radio or in a newspaper not directly but through their members, and didn't pay for it. He also said that if a party is financed through a bank transfer or other banking transactions, often payments are delayed. “The campaign is already over, but the political parties have debts, amounts of money due for advertising in papers, on television, at the publishing houses”, said the CEC secretary. “Often political parties receive cash donations, which are carried in bags, in suitcases, and financial reports are prepared later”, says Ciocan. While examining such reports, CEC discovered that often the list of donors contain persons who cannot possibly have such amounts of money, minors or persons who didn't even know they donated something. For example, investigations carried out by the Fiscal Inspectorate showed that retired, elderly persons were included in such lists as donors of 50,000-60,000 lei. In late 2007, a law passed in Parliament with bipartisan support (PCRM and PPCD), which stipulates government financing for the political parties that will enter Parliament following the 2009 elections. The opposition criticized the law as being an impediment to the right to freedom of assembly as well as favoring the ruling parliamentary coalition.