Political parties to receive public funding from 2009

Political parties will be able to receive funding from the State Budget starting 1 July 2009. The Parliament on Friday passed the Bill on Political Parties in second reading, enacting this provision. The largest part of the Opposition refused to endorse the bill, while the Democratic faction left the sitting hall. The sum to be allocated from the State Budget in funding for political parties will make up 0.2 % of the revenues to the Budget in the respective fiscal year, as opposed to 0.05% proposed at first reading. The funds will be apportioned as follows: one half to political parties that participated in legislative elections, at a rate proportional to the number of seats won in Parliament, and the other half to political parties that participated in general local elections, at a rate proportional to the number of votes collected, provided that they win at least 50 seats (20 in the original version) in the collective bodies of the second-level territorial units. The lawmakers also lowered the minimum number of members required to form a political party from five thousand to four thousand. The adopted version of the bill says that the political parties which fail in two consecutive elections to collect a higher number of votes than the minimum number of members required to form a party (4,000) shall be dissolved. In addition, the bill bans funding of political parties by foreign governments and organisations, state-funded institutions, non-profit organisations, and Moldovan citizens settled abroad. The Opposition MPs largely criticised the bill, especially the provision that enables public funding for political parties from 1 July 2009, and not from the next year. The Opposition also criticised the majority faction for not taking into account the proposals that it made. The leader of the Democratic Party, Dumitru Diacov, stated that under the pretext of improving the legislation the Party Bill was designed to fit certain political interests, just like it happened with the Broadcasting Code. In sign of protest, the Democratic faction left the meeting. Communist MP Vladimir Turcan, chairman of the parliamentary legal commission, retorted that in fact the commission took into consideration a number of amendments proposed by the Opposition MPs as well as international experts. As for the funds, he said it would be reasonable to make them available after the 2009 legislative election. The bill passed with 56 Communist and Christian-Democrat votes.