Representatives of civil society proposed the German model for financing political parties from the state budget. The model envisions the funding of parties not only depending on performance in elections, but also depending on the sums offered by donors. ADEPT executive director Igor Boțan said that such a model will ensure increased equity in funding parties from the state budget and will prevent parties from resorting to dubious financing, IPN reports.
The executive director of the Association for Participatory Democracy (ADEPT) said he welcomed the Parliament decision to ban persons suspected, accused or found guilty of offenses, who were earlier excluded from the electoral competition following the violation of the principle of transparency or who were put on international sanctions lists from standing as candidates at elections. The electoral legislation can be amended not long before the elections if the changes benefit the citizens.
“Parliament introduced this modification for the citizens’ benefit. There is a golden rule – not to change the rules of the game so as not to take by surprise those who run in these elections – the election contenders and the voters too. As regards particular election contestants, the legislation in June was modified to prohibit over 700 persons from running, but this figure was decreased sevenfold as a result of the recent amendments. So, they acted in the interests of citizens and this step cannot be considered negative. The elections are about ideals, projects, not about who bribes who to vote in a particular way. There is evolution, but a sad one. Initially, they voted for rice or oil, but now we witness much more accentuated bribery and this was seen also in the Constitutional Court’s decision,” Igor Boțan stated in the program “Reflection Points” on Vocea Basarabiei channel.
The expert said that to counter illegal party and campaign financing, the method of funding parties from the state budget should be reviewed.
“Together with mates from the Coalition for Free and Fair Elections, we proposed examining the German model of financing from the state budget, under which the money is provided proportionally to the number of votes obtained in three types of elections – local, parliamentary and presidential – and is also put into baskets. From one basket, money is offered porpritonally to the number of obtained votes, while from another basket – proportionally to the sum collected from donations. So, the party is put in the situation to find donors for its activities. The party funding method should be thoroughly analyzed or we can enable those with sacks of money to arrange things so that we will have captured institutions,” stated the ADEPT director.
Under the law, the political parties annually receive subsidies from the state budget through the agency of the Central Election Commission. The money is allocated based on the following formula:
- 30% - proportionally to the performance in parliamentary elections;
- 30% - proportionally to the performance in general local elections;
- 15% - proportionally to the performance in presidential elections;
- 7,5% - proportionally to the number of women elected effectively in parliamentary elections;
- 7,5% - proportionally to the number of women elected effectively in local elections;
- 5% - proportionally to the number of young people elected effectively in parliamentary elections;
- 5% - proportionally to the number of young people elected effectively in local elections.
