ISSN 2336-9507
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Introduction ------------------------------1
CDT ------------------------------------------1
INPO ----------------------------------------3
MOST ----------------------------------------4
Center for Development of Serbia &
Transparency International ------------5
Newsletter No. 5
This project is financed
by BTD
Money and Politics
Regional legislation, practice and experience
Montenegro:
Trust Building
Dear ,
In front of you is the fifth issue of the newsletter prepared
by the Center for Democratic Transition (CDT) in cooperation with partner organizations from the region: Transparency
International Bosnia and Herzegovina, Initiative for Progress
from Kosovo, Citizens’ Association MOST from Macedonia
and Center for Development of Serbia. Publication of the
newsletters was enabled by the Balkan Trust for Democracy
(BTD), which has provided financial support for continuation
of the project "Money and Politics in the Western Balkans".
In this issue, you may find an interview with Mrs. Hasida
Gušić, Head of the Office for Auditing of Political Parties Financing in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Prof. Zoran
Stojiljković, Ph.D, a member of the Board of the Agency for
Fight against Corruption in Serbia. Read ongoing preparations for the local elections in Kosovo, and find out how the
main political parties in Macedonia financed their campaigns
in the recent local elections. In Montenegro, a parliamentary
Working Group is currently working on building trust in the
electoral process and by September 10, it should finish
amendments to electoral legislation.
We invite you to continue to follow our work and efforts
to improve system of political parties’ financing at the regional
level.
Until the next issue,
Dragan Koprivica
CDT Executive Director
Follow us on:
www.moneyandpolitics.me
www.facebook.com/moneyandpolitics
Citing and using the information contained in this newsletter
shall be allowed upon a mandatory stating the source there of
and the copyright owner
M
onths-long debates on legality and legitimacy of
the presidential elections, scandals about the
abuse of institutions and state resources have resulted
in adoption of the Conclusions on building trust in the
electoral process, which were adopted by the Parliament of Montenegro on May 31. Based on the Conclusions a Working Group (WG) was formed, whose task
is to analyze and prepare proposals for amendments to
the Law on Register of Electors, Law on Identity Card,
Law on Registers of Permanent and Temporary Residence, Law on Election of Councilors and Representatives, Law on Financing of Political Parties and the
Law on Montenegrin Citizenship.
The CDT has, immediately after publication of the
Public Call to the interested public to contribute to
building trust in the electoral process, appealed to the
Working Group to include in its work, timely and continuously, representatives of relevant civil society organizations, enable them to participate in all meetings
and to access all documents and information. The WG
has accepted the initiative of the CDT.
Regarding amendments to the Law on Register of
Electors (LRE), with which the WG has started its
work, the CDT has suggested the following:
•keeping registers of electors should be fully
entrusted with the Ministry of Interior (MoI), i.e.
keeping registers of electors at the local level
should be entrusted to the regional units of the
MoI, leading other official records and issuing
identity documents. This proposal is primarily inspired by disclaiming responsibilities that marked
previous electoral processes, when doubts appeared on accuracy of registers of electors. Providing precise responsibilities to a single state
authority would avoid shifting responsibility and
seeking to find blame in the procedures of "others".
Instead, we would know the exact and single address that should be held accountable in the event
of detection of irregularities in the register of electors.
•The CDT has also suggested that the Law on
Register of Electors should stipulate obligation of
annual updates and control of the register by the
1 August 2013
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competent state authority, and should establish a date
for when that control is to be exercised. International
practice and standards indicate the need for a system of
creating and updating registers of electors to be transparent and open to scrutiny by electors, parties and electoral observers. Although there are important
limitations concerning privacy in many countries of the
OSCE, the participants and electoral observers are allowed, not only to examine the register of electors, but
also to get a copy of it, which ensures greater data accuracy. The CDT further proposes that amendments to
the LRE should allow non-governmental organizations
registered for monitoring of elections to access data
from the register of electors and that in this regard, observers should be equated with participants of elections.
Due to the volume of work and amendments that need
to be done the WG members have agreed, instead of drafting
amendments to the old Law, to draft an entirely new law.
The current Draft Law on Unified Register of Electors stipulates that the Ministry of Interior manages the register of
electors while the State Election Commission has the control function. The Draft Law also provides insight into the
register of electors to NGOs authorized to monitor elections.
The CDT has also reminded the WG that it is currently
impossible to make recommendations for amendments to
the Law on Financing of Political Parties because it is still
not known which institution will be responsible for its implementation.
The Working Group should complete its work by September 10th, and prepare by that date amendments of all
electoral laws, including amendments to the Law on Financing of Political Parties, as well as define responsibilities of
the State Election Commission, hopefully through the new
Law on the State Election Commission. At the same time,
the Government of Montenegro has a resolution of these
two issues on its agenda.
Namely, at the beginning of 2013 the Ministry of Finance, in order to meet the remaining GRECO recommendations, established a Working Group for drafting the Law
on Financing of Political Parties and Election Campaigns,
stating that the amendments will, among other things, relate
to defining responsibilities of institutions, regarding monitoring and control of financing of election campaigns, as well
as to regulation of mechanisms of imposing sanctions.
Previous work of that WG was aimed at defining responsibilities of the State Election Commission regarding the area
of financing of political parties. The adopted Action Plan for
the Chapter 23, however, provides for establishment of the
Anti-corruption Agency which would be dealing with the
same issues, which shows that there is no harmonized approach in Montenegro to solving these problems, neither at
the governmental level let alone the parliamentary, although
the main problem of application of the previous LFPP from
2008, as well as the current, is exactly interweaving of and
disclaiming responsibilities between the competent institutions – State Election Commission, State Audit Institution
and, at one time, the Ministry of Finance.
The Action Plan does not even mention adoption of the
Law on the State Election Commission, which is envisaged
by the Action Plan for implementation of the Strategy for
fight against corruption and organized crime for the period
2013-2014. Although in 2011, there were some "attempts"
of drafting the law it has never entered the procedure, due
to the lack of political will to support such a proposal. The
SEC, which is not financially independent, which is composed of representatives of political parties, and which has
only a few full-time employees cannot perform its basic function - ensure the lawful conduct of elections and uniform application of the law.
According to the findings of a large number of international organizations, political parties are among the subjects
most susceptible to corruption. Therefore, all available measures must be taken to ensure that the process of financing
political parties is fully opened to the public. It is necessary
to provide mechanisms for implementation of effective control and sanctioning all irregularities and violations of regulations.
Center for Democratic Transition
Address: VII omladinske bb, 81 000 Podgorica, Montenegro
Tel: +382 20 207 070
+382 20 207 071
Fax: +382 20 207 072
E-mail: [email protected]
Website: www.cdtmn.org
2 August 2013
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Regional legislation, practice and experience
Kosovo: Local Elections
L
ocal elections in Kosovo will be held on November 3 2013; registration of parties and individual
candidates needs to be finished by September 4.
All out of 37 Kosovo municipalities will participate
in the elections for direct votes for municipality mayors,
councilors and advisors. The number of municipal advisors varies depending on the size of the municipality
ranging from 21 to 50 members.
Participation of the Serbian citizens from Northern
Kosovo: Mitrovica, Leposavići, Zvečani, and Zubin
Potok, as well as shortening of the campaign from 30
to 15 days make these elections unique comparing to
the previous.
The Law on Local Elections in article 7 describes
the municipality as a constituency thus councilors are
directly elected by the citizens registered in the municipality, the mayor of the municipality is also directly
elected by the citizens according to article 9.
Municipalities, as a particular administrative unit,
after the central government, are the ones that should
provide citizens with decision making and offer services
based on their needs. Laws and regulations on municipalities well state the rights, responsibilities and opportunities in fulfilling the needs of citizens.
What is actually happening with municipalities and
elected representatives is that they continue to be
guided from “afar” thus not representing the needs of
the citizens who elected them. Their stay in politics still
depends on their political party. When it comes to elections, those who run for municipal posts do not offer
programs based on local needs but make promises out
of national vision aspirations "we will make our city a
European place". This is hypocritical since municipalities for several years have not been able to conclude
basic infrastructure projects such as water, schools, sanitation or roads.
Local promises are mainly a long list of basic infrastructure projects made by a template of "promises for
all settlements" but budget opportunities will make villages wait for years until it is their turn “to earn” an investment.
The Law on Financing of Political Parties, article 10
establishes the budget allocation for election campaigns
and this fund may not pass 0.05% of the budget, 90%
of funds are allocated for parties represented in the Parliament and 10% for parties which are not represented
in the Parliament.
The Law also provides other means of financing.
While these funds are presented in financial reports of
a party as contributions of the "members" they actually
present funds from businesses, which later on have benefits from large public projects.
Citizens who are paying for the campaign should
also seek concrete programs not just utopian ideas. Unfortunately, all that we have witnessed until now is only
the participation of party militants in the festival of
election campaign promises, whereas no one has found
the formula to attract the traditional abstainers who
make around 55% of the electorate, in runoff this figure
reaches 70% and 95% of those who do not vote are aged
between 18-30 years.
The problems with past elections in Kosovo have
shown how political parties are willing to abuse with
the political will of the citizens, the method of stealing
votes which by some was named “industrial” proved
that it was somehow organized, then the problem with
electoral lists and technical problems such the theft of
lamps and spray, make us skeptical that these defects
have been repaired as the number of penalties addressed were little comparing to the number of those
who stole votes.
These elections will be specific by the organization
of elections in the Serb populated municipalities in the
north of the country. It is still a dilemma whether these
citizens will participate in these elections. This would
for the first time provide municipalities in the north
with legitimate representatives in the Kosovar system.
Nevertheless, the other parts of Kosovo have been
through election processes a few times and they have
been run by the OSCE. This time OSCE will only be
running and helping the electoral process in northern
municipalities.
Preparations for these elections have already begun.
Numerous problems are inevitable and seek compromises and political decisions the whole time. Serbs in
the North want separate voting sheets without the emblem of the state of Kosovo, the number of Serbian voters and turnout is unknown. Past experiences have
shown that elections during autumn or wintertime automatically create preconditions for theft and fraud.
Shade of the tendency to manipulate and the low
turnout of voters constitute the fragility of Kosovo
given the failure of electoral reform.
Initiative for Progress – INPO
Address: "12 Qershori", br. 52, 70000 Ferizaj, Kosovo
Tel: +381 (0)290 329 400
Addres: "Nëna Terezë", 30B H-1, br.2, 10000 Priština, Kosovo
Tel: +381 (0)38 220 552
E-mail: [email protected]
Website: www.inpo-ks.org
3 August 2013
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Macedonia: How the main political parties in Macedonia financed their
election campaigns in the recent local elections?
T
he parties are required to submit 3 financial reports:
1 for the first half of the campaign, 1 for the second
half of the campaign and final report for the entire
election campaign.
The analysis of the reports shows that the same irregularities from 2011 are repeated, such as submitting empty reports, higher expenses than incomes etc.
One of the positive things is that none of the parties exceeded the limit for campaign expenses. However, having in
mind that the spending limit is set at approx. 3 million €, or a
total of approx. 5 million €, it is clear that the limit is set very
high and is not relevant for the local context. The previous
limit was set at 1 million € which is closer to reality.
The template for the report does not contain separate line
for incomes from membership fee, although this is one of the
3 ways in which the campaign can be financed, besides the
donations from natural and legal persons. This means that it
cannot be known how much the campaign is financed from
membership fee, that is party’s own funds, and how much
from external donors.
On the other hand, there are so called “other incomes” so
the public cannot know what is the source of these incomes.
For the coalition of the main opposition party, SDSM, the percentage of these incomes as a part of the total income is 98%.
The coalition of the ruling party, VMRO-DPMNE, does
not have incomes from other subjects but on the other hand
it received 1.831 donations from natural persons which pres-
ents increase comparing to 2011 when there were 530 such
donations. In the financial report the name and the surname
of the donator is shown, but without further data about the
donators, in almost all cases it is impossible to know who the
actual donator is. This time the amount of the donation given
by the individual donors varies, and there are donations in
services as well. The persons who donated money to the ruling party include prominent party members, ministers, MPs,
mayors, councilors, chairpersons of public institutions, other
functionaries, as well as candidates in these local elections.
The average donation is approximately 500 €. The total
amount of donations from natural persons represents 56,2%
of the total amount of donations from all donors of VMRODPMNE.
The main opposition party in the Albanian bloc, DPA,
submitted an empty final report so the figures for this party
are calculated from the 2 interim reports. As in the previous
elections there were again negative balances between the incomes and the expenses, but this time they were smaller - in
the case of VMRO-DPMNE - approximately 285.000 €, while
in 2011 it was approximately 3 million €. The ruling party in
the Albanian bloc, DUI had negative balance of 130.000 €.
The practice shows that these minuses are covered from
the funds of the general account, and although this practice
is currently illegal, it is tolerated by the State Audit Office. Either the law should be changed to allow such financing, or the
parties should be sanctioned for such kind of behavior.
Table 1 – Overview of raised and spent election campaign’s funds
Donations
VMRO-DPMNE
SDSM
Other incoms
1.690.786 €
Total Incoms
Total expences
1.690.786 €
1.976.114 €
9.252 €
454.232 €
463.484 €
463.407 €
DUI
224.088 €
5.691 €
229.780 €
359.664 €
DPA
16.561 €
16.561 €
14.518 €
Citizen’s Association MOST
Address: Vanco Mickov 18b, 1000 Skoplje, Macedonia
Tel: + 389 2 3099 384
Fax: + 389 2 3086 430
Website: www.most.org.mk
4 August 2013
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Financing of Political Parties:
Regional Experiences
F
inancing of Political Parties: Regional Experiences Lack of public trust in political parties is
one of the biggest threats to democratic processes in
the Balkans. Unreliability of parties' financial reports,
lack of imposition of sanctions for those who break
the law, overlapping responsibilities of competent institutions, and their independence are just some of
the problems.
Ms. Hasida Gušić, Head of the Office for Auditing of Political Parties’ Financing in Bosnia and
Herzegovina and Prof. Zoran Stojiljkovic, Ph.D, a
member of the Board of the Agency for Fight against
Corruption in Serbia speak for the newsletter
"Money and Politics" on the legislative framework in
this area and practice in Bosnia and Herzegovina and
Serbia.
How much legislation and compliance with regulations are improved in your country in the last 3
years?
Prof. Zoran Stojiljkovic, Ph.D:
What has been done with the Law on Financing of Political Activities, which was adopted in 2011, is a huge step
forward, compared to the previous legislation, or the previous Law from 2003, which regulated financing of parties,
especially during election campaigns in Serbia.
In a manner that is very widespread in the region, we
wanted to meet some kind of European political mantra,
or guidelines of the European Commission, GRECO, and
the Venice Commission, to formally pass a law that functions in a manner and in accordance with the principles
that apply in Europe, which regulates public and private financing, and deals with campaign expenses, and regular
party activities.
The previous law, in transitional and final provisions,
led to the law’s dysfunctionality. When a new law was
drafted, I asked members of the working group, lawyers,
and government experts, to explain to me how come that
Prof. Zoran Stojiljkovic, Ph.D
source: www.politika.rs
Mrs. Hasida Gušić
source: www.cin.ba
the law came into force in 2003, and then it was 2010, and
that no one ever has been sanctioned thereunder. They told
me to pay attention to two things. First, that misdemeanor
prosecution becomes time-barred after one year. Second,
according to the previous law exclusively the Republican
Election Commission, which consists of almost exclusively
representatives of the parties, was competent for the costs
of financing of campaigns, while the Committee for Finances of the Assembly, which has no legal personality and
whose members are exclusively representatives of the parties, was competent for regular party activities.
The fact is that according to that law no one has ever
been sanctioned. It was important to keep control and supervision over the finances in one’s own hands, to simply
prevent the effects of all other legal requirements that may
be good, but practically become time-barred after a year,
and even what it was initiated became time-barred during
the very process.
The first two things that we have tried to do with the
new Law, and those are the key advantages, is that the term
of becoming time-barred is prolonged to five years, and on
the other hand an autonomous, independent body was introduced as holder of control over the costs of regular financing and financing of election campaigns, wherein
regarding election campaigns apart from the "post festum"
audit review of reports, a parallel one was introduced - simultaneous monitoring verification organized by the
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Agency. So there is an overlap of different types of analysis,
monitoring, "post festum" analysis of documents and official reports, something that has made an improvement by
itself, with this longer term of becoming time-barred.
Mrs. Hasida Gušić:
The Law on Financing of Political Parties, which was
passed in 2000, underwent amendments two times in the
last three years. In 2010 the Law on Amendments to the
Law on Financing of Political Parties was adopted (Official
Gazette of Bosnia and Hercegovina, no. 54/10), which has
significantly improved transparency and control of financing of political parties. In 2012, a new Law on Financing of
Political Parties was adopted (Official Gazette of Bosnia
and Hercegovina, no. 95/12), which has significantly
changed the previous legal framework in the area of financing of political parties.
Certain solutions aim to introduce discipline in the area
of financing of political parties, regulate the manner of collecting membership fees and contributions from natural
and legal persons, and enable monitoring of financial flows
of political parties, which significantly improves the framework for control of legality of financing, and to some extent
of spending funds.
The Law on Financing of Political Parties provides for
the first time a certain level of control of spending funds,
in a manner, which provides that a political party may use
its funding exclusively for realization of objectives set out
in its program and statute. The new Law provides that an
authorized person in a political party shall pay collected
fees and voluntary contributions into the current account
of the political party headquarters within 10 days of their
receipt, which represents a significant progress.
Before adoption of this Law no obligation was prescribed to political parties to authorize a person who will
collect fees and contributions of natural and legal persons,
the parties did not have an obligation to pay the collected
funds on the current account in a commercial bank, which
significantly diminished transparency of both collection
and spending of funds and also the control of the source of
funding was difficult. The Law prohibits financing of political parties by other governments, foreign political parties
and foreign legal persons, other than financing intended
for educational programs, whose main activity is education
for development and promotion of democratic principles.
Regarding compliance with regulations in the area of
financing of political parties, the gaps are evident. The Central Election Commission of B&H establishes each year
significant violations of the Law on Financing of Political
Parties among 40% of political parties.
Violations relate to financing from sources that are not
regulated by the Law on Financing, failure to report contributions of natural and legal persons, accepting prohibited contributions, overspending and reporting of election
campaigns and failure to keep complete records of incomes
and expenditures of political parties.
Corruption is identified as the biggest problem; the citizens see it in various sectors. In your opinion, how much
corruption is there in the area of financing of political
parties?
Prof. Zoran Stojiljkovic, Ph.D:
Financing of election campaigns, party and coalition
ones, is a very important corruptive area and network, because within that relation, connections, that will become
far more extensive later, are built. The fact that Serbia is in
the phase of economic recession leads to fact that political
promotion and advancement are a basis for employment,
which has a very corruptive effect during division of political loots, and reaches towards privatization, restructuring
and public procurement.
In the findings of the election campaign, there is something very suspicious, like the fact that you have thousands
of donations in the same amount, you have a number of
cases that people who are beneficiaries of assisted living according to data cards, financed the parties with very similar
amounts. There is a reasonable doubt that a large number
of donors, in order not to exceed the statutory limit of
20,000 dinars for physical, and 200,000 dinars for legal persons, found party activists to simply sign a statement that
they gave a donation.
There is a huge resistance to report data on how many
donations an unidentified person or a company gave to
6 August 2013
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parties, except when it comes to party officials who do not
hide it, who on account of the fact that they got a job in a
public company or a social fund in which they were appointed by the party, take the responsibility to finance it
with 2, 3, 9 or 10% of their income, in the campaign of
course even a little more, by logic – the one who brought
you there is the one you owe to - and these types of phenomena should be sanctioned. The money circulating in
the campaign is not so big, but if we would compare companies that made donations, individuals who invested in
what will after two or three years happen in tenders, that is
what can show ways of money. That is why this political
corruption is intractable, because the corruptive stages are
separated by years.
Mrs. Hasida Gušić:
Corruption in the area of financing of political parties
is present in all countries of the region, so we cannot say
that there is no corruption in this area in Bosnia and Herzegovina as well.
It is important to note that the Central Election Commission of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which is responsible
for implementing provisions of the Law on Financing of
Political Parties and the Election Law of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which regulates financing of election campaigns, is
intensively working on suppression of corruption in the
area of financing of political parties.
The Central Election Commission of Bosnia and
Herzegovina, through the Office for Auditing of Political
Parties Financing, each year, starting from 2004, performs
inspections, control and audit of financial reports of all political parties operating in the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The Central Election Commission of Bosnia and
Herzegovina makes financial reports of political parties and
audit reports with findings of the auditor from the Office
for Auditing available to the public through its website
www.izbori.ba and publishes audit reports in the Official
Gazette as well. Against political parties for which an audit
reveals that they violated provisions of the Law on Financing of Political Parties, the Central Election Commission
initiates and carries out the procedure, and imposes sanctions within its jurisdiction.
In Croatia, parties and individuals who have violated
regulations are sanctioned or are in the process when
deciding on their punishment is being taken. When
will something similar happen in your country?
What does it depend on?
Prof. Zoran Stojiljkovic, Ph.D:
As of late June, the Agency has filed some 215
criminal charges against the parties, having in mind
that there are parties, which did not submit reports.
The question is whether the parties have capacities
at all to produce reports. From about 1700 reports
the Agency received, one year after the elections, a
bit more than two thirds, which suggests perhaps a
lack of capacity, i.e., that some parties or group of citizens are more like tool than serious organization.
If something is not done right - incomplete reports, not submitted reports, if more different elections are presented in one report, it is a
misdemeanor. Misdemeanor is also when funds from
the account for elections are used 30 days after publication of the results, even subsequent payments are
some sort of misdemeanor. I think in a long-term, we
will have fairly significant criminal charges. There are
indications that misdemeanor charges will turn into
criminal. Regarding criminal charges, there are only
two cases which are for prosecution under the existing law, one is for concealing the source and amount
of income that the party has generated, above all,
from private sources, and the other for putting pressure on people to give a contribution. Both cases require verification procedure and criminal charges
may be filed at the time you have a proof, when
someone in the chain speaks, when someone tells you see, I received 35 000 euros – or – that person
told me. Sanctions for concealing the source of financing of parties or hiding the amount, especially if
it turns out that it is an amount over 1.5 million dinars, may be up to five years in prison. So this option
is open - and it is very important why it is opened.
Our experience tells us that when there is a division
in the party, you have a situation where a member of
the party makes a statement about who financed the
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party and how it was done. Therefore, there is a long
way from misdemeanor to criminal charges.
What is the biggest obstacle to compliance with the
Law on Financing of Political Parties?
Prof. Zoran Stojiljkovic, Ph.D:
Mrs. Hasida Gušić:
Here it is happening for a long time that political
parties who have violated regulations in the area of
financing of political parties are being sanctioned.
The Central Election Commission of Bosnia and
Herzegovina is responsible for implementation of
provisions of the Law on Financing of Political Parties and competent to decide whether a political
party or other person has violated provisions of the
Law, as well as impose sanctions against any political
party for non-compliance of the above provisions, or
take appropriate administrative action within its general jurisdiction, in accordance with the Law.
Within the period from 2005 by the middle of
2013 the Central Election Commission of Bosnia
and Herzegovina has issued 255 decisions on sanctioning of political parties, of which 217 were monetary sanctions, and 38 an administrative measure
which denied to political parties the right to candidacy for the next elections.
In cases where on the basis of determined violations of provisions of the Law on Financing of Political Parties and Chapter 15 of the Election Law of
Bosnia and Herzegovina, which regulates the financing of election campaigns, it was determined that
there are indications that tax laws, the Law on Prevention of Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing or the Criminal Code of Bosnia and Herzegovina
have been violated, the Central Election Commission
of Bosnia and Herzegovina informs the competent
authorities, tax authorities and prosecutor's offices.
Similar charges, with supporting evidence, were sent
to the competent authorities because of some indications that criminal offenses were committed,
against the president and one member of a political
party, which performs a ministerial function.
I think it is some kind of political arrogance and ignorance that these types of privileges or privileged
parties in partycratic systems in general can even be
questioned, this kind of ignorant attitude towards an
independent state agency and the public, which allowed them not to file reports or awareness that it is
an interest that has priority over other interests and
the right to control this space as shown, for example,
in terms of credit financing of election campaigns.
Progress has been made in relation to legislation,
but the area of obtaining loans and credit financing of
election campaigns should be better regulated since
the parties were taking loans in terribly large amounts,
and under unusually thin loan guarantees. With two
blank bills of exchange, three million euros were obtained, while banks justified such operations with autonomy of financial policy of banks.
Moreover, changes in political legislation, not only
laws regulating financing of parties but also those regulating elections and electoral systems, are something
that in my opinion can permanently cut out corruption.
Mrs. Hasida Gušić:
One of the key obstacles to compliance with the
Law on Financing of Political Parties, which is also
recognized by GRECO, which gave a recommendation in the Evaluation Report for Bosnia and Herzegovina - The Transparency of Financing of Political
Parties, in the third round of evaluation, is that the
provisions that apply to political parties, especially
related to financing of parties and election campaigns, are currently scattered across various legislative texts.
The Law on Financing of Political Parties stipulates that political parties shall be registered with the
competent court in any entity in accordance with the
Law. Since there is no law on political parties at the
level of Bosnia and Herzegovina, political parties are
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registered in accordance with the entity regulations
and regulations of Brcko District, under different
conditions, regardless of the fact that parties have organizational parts on the territory of the entire
Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The Central Election Commission is continuously committed to adoption of a comprehensive law
on political parties at the level of Bosnia and Herzegovina, as stated in its recommendations addressed
to the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina as part of the annual report on implementation of the Law within the jurisdiction of the Central
Election Commission of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
erty, because in regular procedure of property verification, with bureaucratic correspondence we have to
turn to each individual bank, geodetic institute, and
institutions. When data of Geodetic Institute and
Tax Administration are networked, the possibility
that you do not get some data will be reduced.
With these technical improvements, the current
legal framework and with these mentioned refinements, I think that the Agency, having in mind that
it receives some funding, has the ability to exercise
control and supervision and is able to count on services of the State Audit Institution, will function satisfactorily.
Who is the most responsible for its proper
application?
Mrs. Hasida Gušić:
Prof. Zoran Stojiljkovic, Ph.D:
In a broader sense, I consider political actors as
responsible for application of the Law and regulations, and especially the National Assembly, which
should, based on the new Strategy and the Action
Plan for fight against corruption, be a kind of place
that verifies this, accepts initiatives for adoption,
amendments to laws, and decides or may decide on
recommendations of independent state authorities
and their implementation.
The Agency controls the property, establishes a
conflict of interest, controls party reports, performs
monitoring and control of elections. However, there
is also an obligation of other bodies to coordinate
work with the Agency, which is not a matter of goodwill. Problem of the Agency is in control of the prop-
Center for Development of Serbia
Address: Desanke Maksimovic 2,
11000 Beograd, Serbia
Tel: (+381 11) 24 33 587
E-mail: [email protected]
Website: www.razvojsrbije.org,
www.razvojsrbije.org.rs
For proper application of the Law on Financing
of Political Parties are responsible primarily political
entities, which are being financed according to it.
The Central Election Commission, which is responsible for implementation of provisions of this
Law and competent to decide whether a political
party or other person has violated provisions of the
Law, as well as to impose sanctions against any political party for non-compliance with these provisions
and take appropriate administrative measures, in accordance with the Law, is responsible within its general competence.
Moreover, other bodies of executive power, which
allocate funds for financing of political parties in accordance with this Law or otherwise provide the
conditions for operation of political parties, cannot
be excluded from responsibility to properly apply the
Law on Financing of Political Parties.
Transparency International
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Adress: Gajeva 2, 78000 Banja Luka
Tel: +387 51 216 928,
+387 51 224 520, +387 51 224 521
Tel/fax: +387 51 216-369
E-mail: [email protected],
Website: www.ti-bih.org