ISSN 2336-9515 • • • • • •
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Uvodna riječ --------------------------------1 Transparency International --------------1 CDT ------------------------------------------2 MOST ----------------------------------------4 Regional round table------------------------4 Other sources ----------------------------------8
Newsletter No 7
Money and Politics
Regional legislation, practice and experience Bosnia and Herzegovina: New Regulations
ŠĐDear, We are happy to present you the seventh 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 - Kosovo, Citizens Association MOST Macedonia and the Center for Development of Serbia. Publication of the newsletters was enabled by the Balkan Trust for Democracy (BTD), which has provided financial support for implementation of the project "Money and Politics in the Western Balkans". In the new issue of the newsletter, the last in the project cycle, you may find the conclusions of the regional round table, which was held in Podgorica on 23 December 2013th. You can read about the changes in the electoral legislation in Macedonia and Montenegro, changes in the Law on financing political activities and election campaigns in Croatia, changes of the by-laws in Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as the CDT's research on the abuse of public resources for election purposes. We invite you to continue to follow our work and our efforts to improve the system of funding of political parties of the region. Respectfully, Dragan Koprivica CDT Executive Director
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he Central Election Commission of Bosnia and Herzegovina adopted a new Regulation on the annual financial reports and the Regulation of pre-election and post-election financial reports of political entities, according to the amendments to the Law on Financing of Political Parties, adopted more than a year ago. Amendments to these by-laws again aroused the question of the Law, which was derogated to a large extent by the latest changes. In accordance with it, the Transparency International B&H sent a request to the Central Election Commission for interpretation of certain provisions, in terms of their implications in the application of the Act and the audit of the financial reports of the parties. First of all, a provision that allowed the sources of income such as "income from publishing, selling the promotional materials and organizing party rallies" was considered controversial. So far, the publishing was considered to be a permitted activity of companies owned by political parties, and now this activity, as well as the sales of promotional materials and organization of party rallies, is listed as a separate activity of the party. Also, advertising material and party rallies are included in the cost of the pre-election campaign, so it is necessary to interpret how the parties will derive revenue from these activities, particularly bearing in mind that they are a non-profit organization, not subjected to the fiscalization and taxation laws. In addition, the Regulation had introduced the amendments by which the parties in their financial reports did not state the identification numbers of corporations and individuals who donated to the party, and thus removed barriers of publishing the donors' names, especially having in mind the current attitude of the CEC that no single source of donations should be published according to the Law on protection of personal data. Therefore, the TI B&H sent the Central Election Commission a request for information on how the financial statements will be published in the future. A positive change in the regulations is related to an obligation for the parties to issue certificates of donations to all corporations and individuals being donors or party members, which must be made available to the CEC during the audit. The Transparency International B&H hopes that this mechanism will strengthen the control over donations, particularly those below 100 BAM, whose resources, according to the new Regulation, are not required to be named in the financial reports of the 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: info@ti-bih.org, Website: www.ti-bih.org
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Regional legislation, practice and experience Montenegro: Social Welfare benefits grow in election years
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he level of public spending on social welfare benefits was significantly higher during election years, which is a possible indicator of abuse of state resources, according to a research conducted by the Centre for Democratic Transition (CDT). President of this NGO Milica Kovačević stated that the aim of the research carried out over the past six months was to comprehensively test the claims about misuse of public resources for election purposes and identify trouble spots in the system that allows room for abuse. "The electoral process in Montenegro is marked by the public suspicion of misuse of assets and powers for the purpose of achieving better election results," said Kovačević. According to her, this mostly relates to the selective distribution of different types of social welfare benefits and special aid, and to employment of voters of ruling parties in the state administration. Kovačević reminded that the problem culminated just before and during the presidential elections in 2013. "Affaire Audio Recording has confirmed that public officials do testify about the selective employment of supporters of the ruling parties", she added. The Employment Agency and Human Resources Management Agency do not have data on persons employed. According to Kovačević, in most cases there was no reaction of the competent authorities whatsoever. She also reminded that, in order to try to address this problem, the Parliament adopted Conclusions on Building Confidence in the Electoral Process and formed a working group tasked with amendments to the electoral legislation aimed at restoring confidence in the electoral process. For the research purposes, CDT analyzed annual financial statements of the state and municipalities from 2006 to 2012, and particularly the budget category 42 - transfers for social welfare benefits at the state level and transfers to individuals at the municipal level. Kovačević said that the Tax Office provided data on the number of employers with orderly submitted OPD3 applications and the Statistical Office (MONSTAT) employment statistics collected from administrative sources. "A significant portion of the data that we wanted to collect does not exist or is difficult to obtain. Available data is often organized in different and incomCenter 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: cdtmn@t-com.me Website: www.cdtmn.org
parable formats, which significantly complicates their analysis", said Kovačević. CDT collected data on the number of juvenile and adult beneficiaries of social welfare, and addressed the Judicial Council in order to obtain data on the number of convictions for criminal offenses that may be related to elections. As she noted, it is very concerning that the Employment Agency has no data on employment as reported on the criterion of public/private sector, nor does the Pension Fund. "Also, the Human Resources Management Agency does not have data on the number of persons employed in administration on an annual basis since its foundation to date". "Bearing in mind these limitations, our goal was not to deal with individual examples, but to examine this problem in more detail by combining different methods", explained Kovačević. Social welfare benefits in 2009 increased by 69 million General conclusion that CDT reached following the analysis of the budget category 42 - transfers for social welfare benefits at the state level - is that the expenditures rose in 2009 and 2012, the years of parliamentary elections. "Our analysis shows significant growth - more than 69 million euros in 2009, and then fall in 2010, followed by a new growth in 2011 and 2012", said Kovačević. According to her, it is interesting that total public expenditures in 2009 increased by 61 million euros as compared to 2008, and that social welfare benefits increased by as much as 69 million during the said period. It is interesting, as viewed by CDT, that state budget expenditures in 2012 remained at approximately the same level as in 2011, and that social welfare benefits increased by almost 27 million euros. It is also indicative that further growth of these allocations was planned in the budget for the previous year, when presidential elections were held, while in the budget proposal for the next year, when there are no national elections, less money has been planned for this purpose."Significant increase of social welfare benefits in election years is a possible indicator of abuse of state resources. However, there are other possible explanations", said Kovačević. She explained that the
2 January 2014
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Regional legislation, practice and experience growth of these benefits could have occurred for a number of different reasons, for instance due to a change in social policy or a set of objective economic and social factors such as the closing of large systems, layoffs, redundancies and increased number of people in need of social care. "Nevertheless, during this period the Government failed to properly present to the public these major shifts in the conduct of social policy or explain the reasons for it, so doubt remains that the increase was associated with the elections", said Kovačević. 13 municipalities increased transfers to individuals Research carried out by CDT has shown that spending under item 4313 - transfers to individuals–was significantly increased in election years at the local level too, in at least 13 municipalities. Data collected by CDT through the analysis of annual financial statements show that municipalities Herceg Novi, Bar, Kolašin, Kotor, Plav, Rožaje, Tivat and Ulcinj increased their social spending in the election years. "Immediately after the election year there was a decrease, although the decrease was followed by an increase in the municipal budget", stated Kovačević. She added that there are several municipalities, whose spending grew significantly in the years of parliamentary and presidential elections, although local elections were not held in these municipalities. "What is common to all municipalities is a high level of discretion in deciding on the allocation of money to individuals, which is a source of potential abuse", noted Kovačević. According to her, practices are different at the municipal level, and the aforesaid item - transfers to individuals - includes a variety of expenses. "The only rule is that the allocations under this item vary significantly from year to year", said Kovačević.
that predominantly belong to the public sector, representing about 31 per cent of the total number of employees. According to Kovačević," although it is clear that a different methodology of data collection has been employed, such significant differences in the number of employees may indicate that public companies submit erroneous tax returns". She also noted that the current data suggest that a significant number of citizens of Montenegro, directly or indirectly, depend on the state. "If we also take into consideration the information provided by MONSTAT that during the period 2006-2010 there was on average about 52 thousand juvenile and adult beneficiaries of social welfare n Montenegro, it is clear that the state has an influence on a large number of people, which can be a source of potential misuse of resources for electoral purposes", said Kovačević. No punishment Kovačević said that the data CDT received from the Judicial Council "sounds incredible". "Only one procedure was initiated for the crime of Violation of electoral freedom of choice in 2012, which resulted in four acquittals", explained Kovačević. She added that in the past three years no court case was initiated or a judgment passed with regard to crimes Violation of equality at employment and Illegal mediation. "These are the first, preliminary research findings. CDT will present final results in the upcoming period, and submit its recommendations to improve existing regulations and practices to competent state authorities", said Kovačević.
Significant number of citizens dependent on the state With regard to employment, data submitted to CDT by the Tax Office show that in public sector, in the period from 2006 to 2010,the average number of submitted tax returns was around 30 thousand, accounting for about 23 per cent of the total number of registered employees. On the other hand, data submitted to CDT by MONSTAT indicate that during the same period an average of 50 thousand people were employed in activities
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: cdtmn@t-com.me Website: www.cdtmn.org
3 January 2014
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Regional legislation, practice and experience Macedonia: Election Code amendments
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n 23rd of January the Assembly of the Republic of Macedonia adopted the new amendments of the Election Code, by consensus of all the major political parties, except for the main opposition party from the Albanian bloc, DPA. In a positive development, the nature of the threshold for donations from legal persons was finally changed, and now is set at 50.000 €, instead of 5% from the total annual income.
It is interesting that the proposal from the working group (of which MOST was part of) was 30.000 €, but the Ministry of Justice did not accept this recommendation and did not include it in the draft law. However, this was also one of the demands from the main opposition party, SDSM, and in the political bargaining the political parties reached consensus for the present solution which was one of the OSCE/ODIHR recommendations.
Regional round table: Money and Politics
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he regional round table discussion "Money and politics" was held in Podgorica on December 23, 2013. The event was organized with the aim to contribute to the improvement of the system of funding of political parties through the interchange of experience and discussion about the legal framework, transparency, supervision of party financing and practice in Montenegro and neighboring countries. The participants were relevant experts from the region, members of the Parliament of Montenegro, representatives of the institutions, civil society organizations and the media. The event had three panels, and the conclusions and topics that were discussed can be found in the articles that follow. PANEL I Citizens’ trust in election process and political parties in Montenegro - The Working Group will not wait for the EC's answers-
The representative of the Democratic Front (DF) Goran Danilović said at the conference "Money and Politics" organized by the CDT with the financial support from the BTD, that they will not wait with the Election Law until February or March. "Well, if we are going to wait for someone to speak out in February or March, and that person has the opportunity to stand out all the time, I am not in. Even if it be God the Father, not the EC, I will not wait. If they had something to say, they should have done it by now. We were the defrauded ones at the elections, not them", said
Danilović and added: "I understand (Mitja) Drobnič. He is not in a rush, but I am - I want to adopt the new standards. So you can send the request in August or September, and receive the response in December saying that you have to wait until March. In March, they will say that the elections were fair and according to democratic standards. Let the gentleman or gentlemen take the responsibility and explain to the public why we are now in this situation." The deadline is not important to DPS DF's representative said that the fate of the Law on financing political parties was linked to the destiny of the Working Group. "There is a possibility to finish the work with great results, or to end up with nothing. As the time passes, I'm more pessimistic and I am not sure what will happen till the end. We cannot invent anything new", said Danilović. Branko Čavor, the DPS’s representative, also said the he was pessimistic at the initiation of the Working Group because there was a need to compromise and meet the interests of the parties, but also to take care of professionalism in the work. "The experts who are with us and also in the EU should be involved, so they can help us to compromise with the neutral view. And we are eager to have good laws and the regulated system. We will continue to contribute." Čavor said that he didn't support the quick solutions and limited terms, and that they were preferable to good long-term laws, that would not be changed in a year.
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 January 2014
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Regional legislation, practice and experience Positive: Is the non-party SEC real? Asked whether this regulated SEC may control the parties, Danilović said that the institution had a supervisory and control role, and that it was on the Democratic Party of Socialists to assume it or not. "We will show them that we are not easy to be tricked. DPS has its private funding source, but it is not the case with the opposition. We don't receive a cent in that way; we do not have the state goods. We interview the public once in four years, while Mugoša and Marović do it for DPS", said Danilović. However, Mladen Bojanić from the Positive Montenegro said that he would like to have a non-party SEC. "Is it real? I don't know. It is the only real solution up to now. We have adopted these provisions at the last session of the sub-groups, but the attitude of DPS is unknown." Talking about the responsibilities of the institutions that are supposed to oversee the work of parties, Bojanić says that the audit itself takes time. "It takes time and it is usually conducted after the election process. The society has benefit only in the next election. With the new proposal, the SEC can directly react in the election process", he added. The same for KAP and DF During the first panel, the President of CDT Milica Kovačević pointed out that the audit is not the same as the control. She reiterated that CDT opposed the proposal that the state guaranteed for the parties. "The issue of the credit is a problem; a good practice suggests that political parties should not be dependent on the public sources. The violation of law is cheap. The maximum penalty is 20.000 euros", she said. Bojanić answered that the parties were forced to finance their work and that they were in a problem because they didn’t have properties: "We did not have the financial history of our business ... We could not apply for loans, although we had guaranteed with our personal property. DPS had the property for a guarantee, but we did not. The money is important during the campaign, none is waiting for you." He said that part of the budget money was paid directly to the bank as repayment of the debt, through the Ministry of Finance: "The state should not guarantee to all of our loans, just as long as we have the results on the latest elections." Neither Danilović has anything against the government guarantees for the parties.
"It would be fair that the state guarantees for loans to the parties, when it has guaranteed 100 million euros to unknown people. Here it guarantees for its political subject", he said. During the discussion about the problems in the political parties funding, Čavor said that there were constant rumors about the lack of political will, while the practice showed the opposite: "If the point was in it, we would not come to form a Working group on the opening chapters 23 and 24. This means that there is a political will. From the nine GRECO recommendations, five are completely fulfilled, and four partly." He believes that the SEC capacity should be strengthened and freshened with the professionals. PANEL II Oversight of political parties financing – Montenegro and region - Parties do not find expensive to break the law The supervision over the implementation of laws and the revision should be separated, and sanctions should be better adapted, so it could be easier to impose a penalty if the political entities do not respect the law, as well as to deprive them of the money from the budget, said a member of the Senate of the State Audit Institution (SAI), Nikola Kovačević. "The SAI recommends to regulate the issue of campaign financing from loans and borrowings by amendments to the Act, and to determine the limit to which they can borrow, as well as the deadline and the source of funds to return money, also to specify the administration of business books - the Ministry of Finance should make a regulation and systematize it, and to distinguish the responsibilities of institutions for monitoring and control with the new law", said Kovačević. He declared on the round table "Money and Politics", organized by the CDT within the panel "Party Founding Supervision - Montenegro and the Region", that accord-
5 January 2014
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Regional legislation, practice and experience ing to the SAI, the supervision over the implementation of laws and audit should be separated. "The SEC should take care of supervision, and the SAI of the audit. The sanctions should be better adapted, so the political parties may face the penalty if they do not respect the law and be deprived of the money from the budget", he said. According to Kovačević, it should be prescribed that those who have contributions of more than 20 thousand euros must be controlled every year, while those with lower income should be controlled if needed and evaluated. "We believe that the SAI should enjoy financial and functional independence, that the budget should set the competent authority of the Assembly to our proposal, and that we determine on our own which entity will be revised, for example, next year. We believe that we have to be able to strengthen the institution of the SEC personnel without the approval of the executive branch", said Kovačević.
According to him, the municipality of Podgorica will quickly come to the table for the audit. "Two municipalities will be covered this year; I cannot say which ones because the annual plan is up to be acknowledged. We are baffled by the local elections in 14 municipalities, and it is not a practice to control their consolidated accounts in the election year", said Kovačević.
The audit for the Capital city As he said, the SAI is not authorized to submit the misdemeanors and it should be regulated. "Regarding the criminal charges, the SAI is required to submit the application if it determines that there is a suspicion of a criminal offense. It is a collective authority - we sometimes give a negative opinion, but we are not sure whether there is a crime." "We do not run away from submitting the criminal charges when we consider that there is a crime. In cases where we give the negative opinion, we inform the public prosecutor. Our documentation is only part of the evidence that eventually leads against the person responsible for the crime", said Kovačević. Answering the question of the President of Positive Montenegro's Youth Luka Rakčević, weather the SAI did the audit of the Capital city, Kovačević said that the audit of political parties burdened the SAI. "We had been working on 26 political entities, plus the campaign for the parliamentary parties. It completely fills a good part of the DRI's annual plan." "There are a large number of subjects to be controlled, and we have only five sectors. The capital and the companies are part of the sector five, in which there are nine people working with the member of the Senate, and they are supposed to control over 400 entities. The average per sector is five audits in a year", said Kovačević.
Donors receive benefits Ružica Stojiljković from the Anti-Corruption Agency from Serbia said that the Agency is unable to prove the abuse when it comes to individuals. "In 2011 election year in Serbia, more than six thousand individuals donated money to parties, and about 300 contributors were legal entities. The Agency will continue to monitor what is going on with them. We have established contact with other institutions in order to see which of them has achieved the procurement since then", she said. According to Stojiljković, the Agency controlled the report for 2012.
6 January 2014
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Regional legislation, practice and experience "Legal entities are forbidden to finance parties unless they have settled tax liabilities and obligations. Agency submitted 389 abuse charges, but only 17 were adjudicated with minimal penalties. We also have a legal limit that the campaign money must be returned from the campaign funds, but there is no government guarantee", she said. PANEL III Role of CSOs and media in monitoring of political parties' financing and election campaigns - Media don’t have time for money and politics Apart from the daily political events and a number of parties' activities in media coverage of election campaigns, journalists in Montenegro, but also in the region, do not have time to deal in detail with the matters of party funding and the relationships between money and politics. That was concluded on the third panel "The Role of Civil Society and the Media in Monitoring the Party Funding and the Election Campaigns", within the conference "Money and Politics", organized by the Center for Democratic Transition, with financial support from the Balkan Trust for Democracy (BTD). The editor of Mina News Agency Milan Žugić said that due to the lack of time in the media, there are not so many analytical articles on this subject. "Journalists are torn between 4-5 events per day, and when in the course of the campaign, they do not have more space for those subjects. The parties are closed and it is difficult to obtain information, especially when it comes to donations of individuals", said Žugić. He recalled the list of people who donated money to DPS, which was published in the media: "The media have a list of 200 people who donated money to DPS and it all came down to whether the journalists misused the identification number, and whether a violation of the Law on Personal Data occurred. No one dealt with it in more detail." "Albona", a donation from the SEC... The editor of Mina News Agency did not forget the example of "Albona" director who recently said that he was financing the campaign of Miodrag Lekić, and that he previously also financially helped DPS. "The party and the director denied it the day after. And that was the end of the story", said Žugić. The executive director of CDT Dragan Koprivica recalled the case of the President of the SEC Ivan Kalezić,
who donated money for the campaign of DPS. Koprivica asked the journalist how to find the line between objective analysis on this topic and sensationalism that people like to read. "Information on this subject must be accurate and complete and there is no need to go for sensationalism. People understand it better when it is simplified...," Žugić replied. He finds it difficult to determine who gives money to the parties and in which amount. "People don't want to be recognized, they fear that they could be in problem if they are known as financiers. For example, it was agreed at the meeting of the Working Group that the state should pay even the party observers. However, in cooperation with the CDT, we managed to stop it. There is always space to conceal a fraud...," said the editor of the only news agency in Montenegro.
What’s the case in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Macedonia? Svetlana Ćelić, a journalist from the Center for Investigative Reporting in B&H, said that her organization dealt with the properties of the parties and politician, and that they were making parallels on what politicians had at the beginning and at the end of the term, and whether they increased their assets. "We found a problem of assets that are outside of Bosnia and Hercegovina. We know that they have villas in Cyprus, flats in Milano... but that is all unavailable for us. We were also dealing with the properties that are not reported. If we talk about corruption, our country is corrupted. A MP in our Parliament gets about 7.000 CM, while the average salary is 700 marks." Aleksandra Markovska from the Transparency International of Macedonia emphasized that the institutions in her country were not willing to cooperate with civil society organizations as they expected. "Only 30 percent of the parties have their own websites in Macedonia, and their financial report should be published online. Transparency's data in Macedonia showed that in 2011 only 11 percent of political parties submitted their final accounts, in 2012 it was the case with only 13 percent of the parties, while in 2013 it is expected to be 29 percent", she said. Samir Reka from the organization INPO Kosovo reported that Kosovo's companies associated with the party in power got jobs worth about 100 million euros through the government tenders.
7 January 2014
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Regional legislation, practice and experience Other sources... Montenegro: The Election Law The small embroidery Source: Weekly Monitor (www.monitor.co.me) The fate of the Election Law, as well as the destiny of the other laws in this country, is in the reliable hands of the Democratic Party of Socialists. DPS's representative Milutin Simović has informed us these days that it has been flourishing as always. "I'm sure that the next local elections, like all the previous ones, will be the holiday of democracy in Montenegro." It all adds up - what kind of democracy we have, that is how our holiday looks like - for the time being, we will enjoy the magic of DPS's elections until further notice. From the perspective of the thief, well done theft is a business success. The Working Group for Building Confidence in the Electoral Process was working hard for months, and its work was almost finished - with no results. The authority did not start the whole business voluntary, but under pressure from the European institutions after publishing "Snimak". The Working Group was formed at the same time as the Inquiry Committee, whose work was at first stultified by DPS, and then declared as finished. Regarding the electoral legislation, they used “the small embroidery". Opposition representatives in the Working Group complained about the obstruction of DPS almost since its formation. There were infinite bargains about who should lead the electoral register, whether the work should be performed at three different locations as it was the case so far, how to prevent a supernatural phenomenon that people from the other side of various oceans manage to reach the electoral register and the like. With the mastery gained by time, DPS successfully subjected demands of the opposition - although sometimes poorly articulated - to different bureaucratic procedures and did everything to choose the hardest way towards the solution for the manipulation of the will of citizens. In a letter sent to the President of Parliament Ranko Krivokapić in late December, co-chairmen Srđan Milić and Milutin Simović said that after months of work, the Working Group did not fulfill its task and that the further work was uncertain. DPS's MP Miodrag Vuković inspiredly explained to website Analitka what the problem was. "The opposition expected that their particular interests would be incorporated into the election legislation and that their solutions would be part of it. Those radical in-
novations suggested by opposition were not acceptable for us; it would be a normative basis cure for many defeat sufferings and the winner's declaration for the next elections, not being even called." Vuković said that all local elections this year would be held by valid, current election laws. Then, a collegium was held in the Parliament, and the members of the Working Group had a talk with Mitja Drobnič, Head of the EU Delegation to Montenegro. Monitor's sources said that Drobnič made it clear that the EU expected the new legislation and if it lacked, the elections for the next four years could be flagged as suspicious. Afterwards, as it was published, there was an agreement that the proposals of new laws on the election of councilors and representatives and election register would be determined. The President of the Parliament Ranko Krivokapić optimistically announced that he expected six election laws to be completed by the end of February, and that the local elections in the spring will be held under the new election legislation. Dragan Koprivica, the Executive Director of the Center for Democratic Transition, who was a member of the Working Group, said to Monitor that Krivokapić's statement was pretty brave and optimistic. "It appears almost impossible for the new State Election Commission to be formed and to start running in two or three months, especially considering the significantly increased workload. It also seems impossible for the Ministry of Internal Affairs to take all the tasks related to the electoral register of the municipalities, to prepare a new database, to obtain and implement a system that controls whether there are some double-issued documents. In that short period, it is not realistic to expect them to invite a tender for the purchase of the electronic voting machines, to implement all that at the polling stations, and to train the voting committees, and also the citizens for the new voting rules." According to the representative of the Democratic Front Goran Danilović, the latest deal in the Parliament was more like the next step towards the fair parliamentary elections, then to local. "Even though something is going on, we should carefully consider how the opposition will participate in the local elections which, as it is reasonably suspected, will allow the authorities to continue with the abuse." And if the new Law on Election of Councilors and MPs is adopted, there is no chance for the part on which the opposition bank on the most - the electronic identification of voters - to be applied to local elections. The possible for-
8 January 2014
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Regional legislation, practice and experience mation of the new National Electoral Commission is something that Danilović sees as "the better conditions" for the elections. The CDT believes that the Electoral Commission should be made as a professional and independent institution without political parties' representatives. "We insisted on non-party Election Commission that has its own budget and is made up of people who are competent for the job. Our opinion is that those who participate in the selection process cannot organize the process or be "judges" in it, and make decisions about its correctness. We consider it absurd that the party's SEC controls the finance of the same party", said Dragan Koprivica. He believes that the failure of the Working Group and other non-adoption of the Election Law will negatively impact primarily on the image of the Parliament as well as on the assessment of Montenegro's progress, because the democratic elections are the foundation of every stable and developed country. The CDT's Survey on the Misuse of Public Resources for the Election Purposes presents part of the milieu in which the elections are held in Montenegro, confirming that here it is hard to achieve democratic elections. The general conclusion, to which the CDT came by analyzing the social spending in the state budget, is that expenses had risen in the years of parliamentary elections - 2009 and 2012. "Our analysis shows a significant increase, more than 69 million euros in 2009, then a fall in 2010 and re-growth during the 2011 and 2012", said the President of CDT Milica Kovačević.
According to her, it is interesting that the total state spending in 2009 was 61 million euros more than in 2008, and during that period, social benefits were increased by 69 million. CDT considers it also interesting that the budget expenditure in 2012 remained at approximately the same level as in 2011, and that the social benefits increased to almost 27 million euros. Apart from the social benefits, the authority manages the electoral registers, the state and local election commissions, job positions, flour, chocolate and other heavy equipment. In such circumstances, the electoral victory is just waiting to be picked. And now, however we take it, DPS, according to its own criteria, has made a success. In addition to the recent elections in three municipalities in which they won by the consistent application of the method recorded in affair "Snimak", DPS managed to maintain the same electoral framework for elections in Ulcinj and Berane. No serious changes will be noticed in the spring elections in 11 municipalities, including the capital - Podgorica, where a third of Montenegrin citizens live. There is no base for a hope. The opinion that wherever the opposition eventually achieves a narrow victory, DPS manages to abduct it; can be clearly heard in the opposition circles. The idea that a grandmother might have to pay two pennies to come out of the round is heard sometimes almost under the breath. If it loses all the upcoming locals, what will be the ace for the next parliamentary elections - the opposition knows. Miloš Bakić Croatia: Constitutional Court abolished the part of the Law for which the SDP lost 5 million HRK Source: GONG (www.gong.hr) At the request of the SDP, the Constitutional Court annulled the clause of the Law on financing political activities and election campaigns for which the party was fined five million HRK for not publishing the financial report on time. "The laws must be respected, even when they are meaningless and unconstitutional", said the Prime Minister Zoran Milanović after his party SDP was "late" with the publication of the annual financial report for which the National Audit Office requested the SDP to be denied of three months’ amount from the state budget. Milanović also announced that they would launch the legal proceedings so it would be on the court to decide whether it was legal, right and equitably. The announced was done.
9 January 2014
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Money and Politics
Regional legislation, practice and experience A violation of the principle of proportionality On behalf of the SDP, lawyer Vesna Alaburić made a proposal to review the constitutionality of the clause 42 of the Law on financing political activities and election campaigns, which refers to the administrative sanctions for all parties and independent MPs who break the rules for publishing the annual financial reports. Alaburić emphasized that the impugned clause was not in accordance with the Constitution and international human rights regulations. As explained by the judge rapporteur Aldo Radolović, SDP accepted the obligation of accountability, but not with the sanctions considered to ultimately jeopardize the right of free association and the establishment of political parties guaranteed by the Constitution: "The proponent called the provision a flagrant violation of the principle of proportionality; he said that the provision made the norm and the execution of norm and noted that the norm did not allow tinting sanctions to some particular case." In fact, it did not matter whether the report was not published or was published with a delay of several hours. However, in the case of the SDP, the accent was on a few days delay, but the double punishment was also considered controversial because a fine and the loss of eligibility for funding from the state budget were intended for those who broke the law. Contamination and the abuse of the system The Constitutional Court considered that the impugned clause was in conflict with the Constitution, which guarantees freedom of association; actually, as Radolović said, after a series of discussions and analysis, the constitutional judges considered that "the clause had its legitimate purpose, and it was guaranteeing the transparency of political parties, but the applied means exceeded that goal and was inadequate in achieving the goal. Parliamentary democracy or multiparty political system is one of the greatest constitutional values. The establishment and the work of the parties should be free, and they must be committed to the common good and creation of the competitive program that will be offered to voters. That's why their funding should be made public in order to avoid contamination of powerful groups and individuals who would abuse the system." The penalties for getting out of the frame must be provided in future legal solution, but they must be proportionate to the pursued aim. According to Mina News Agency, the president of the Constitutional Court Jasna Omejec said that when it came to transparency of disposal
budget money, out of the provision that had to be repealed we could see the good intention of the legislator to discipline the parties and MPs. However, when sanctions become fines for violations, and at the same time we also have administrative punishment by subtracting the quarterly amount of funding, so if you decide on a political body composed of representatives of the parties that are punished, we have a solution that is disproportionate, but also contrary to the requirements arising from the principle of the rule of law." The future legal solutions are important "This decision brings order in the regulations governing the funding of parties and campaigns, bringing sanctions proportionate to the seriousness of the offense, because it is not the same if the party, regardless of which one, does not report or delivers it late, or if it submits the false report. This decision, however, does not mean loosening the Law on financing political activities and election campaigns because there will still be an obligation of reporting and the default deadline, and the issue of the supervision of the financial operations of the parties is also important, especially during the election campaigns when there is more money circulation," said the executive director of GONG, Dragan Zelić, and concluded: "It is important that the State Election Commission ultimately decides on administrative sanctions in the future, not that the Parliament punishes the political parties so it happens that one political party that has a majority punishes itself. That should be done by an independent body, and then it comes to respect for the rule of law. So, this is a good decision of the Constitutional Court, although, of course, we can talk about the timing of the decision and question whether it has any repercussion on the relations between the Government and the Constitutional Court." This decision of the Constitutional Court, as Media Services communicates, and Tportal.hr reports, was commented by Milanović. After the summit of the EU, journalists asked Milanović what would be the legal consequences of this decision of the Constitutional Court and he said: "If it has repealed the clause, then the legal consequences of the clause will be removed. However, considering the fact that we as the Government didn't give the output to the Constitutional Court, because we thought we were in a conflict of interest since the majority of the ministers are from SDP, I will not comment on it now, maybe tomorrow at the party conference. "
10 January 2014