Financing Presidential Electoral Campaign in Serbia 2004
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Vladimir Goati Nemanja Nenadić Predrag Jovanović FINANCING PRESIDENTIAL ELECTORAL CAMPAIGN IN SERBIA 2004 A blow to political corruption or preservation of status quo? This book is a part of the project Promoting Democracy and Preventing Corruption implemented with the support from Westminster Foundation for Democracy. The stated views belong to the authors and do not necessarily present the opinions of Westminster Foundation for Democracy. Transparency - Serbia, Belgrade 2004 Financing Presidential Electoral Campaign in Serbia 2004 A Blow to Political Corruption or Preservation of Status Quo? Translators: Olivera Ristanović (Introductory notes, chapters 1,2) Nebojša Naumović (chapters 3,4,5) Transparency Serbia (tables and annexes)* Publisher: Transparency Serbia 29. novembra 36/I Belgrade tel.: +381 11 303 38 27 fax: +381 11 322 81 96 [email protected] www.transparentnost.org.yu For publisher: Branislav Miletić Layout: Transparency Serbia, Belgrade Printing: Arteast, Belgrade Circulation: 200 ISBN: 86 - 84711-07 - 6 * Translation of some legal documents, presented in Documentation Annex was made by, or in consultation with OSCE Mission to Serbia and Montenegro - legal translation unit. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS List of abbreviations ................................................................... ix Introductory Notes .......................................................................1 Vladimir Goati Scope of research......................................................................... 5 Increase in election costs .........................................................................7 Financial violation and misuse................................................................9 Reduced tolerance to corruption........................................................... 11 Two periods............................................................................................12 Period after 5 October............................................................................ 15 Subject and aim of research................................................................... 17 Nemanja Nenadić Normative basis ..........................................................................21 Review of the regulations on party financing in Serbia and of their application (1990-2003) ...................................21 Allocation of the budget funds.....................................................23 Financing sources outside the budget........................................ 24 Sanctions ..................................................................................... 24 iii Process of adopting the Law from 2003................................................25 Innovations brought about by the Law from 2003...............................32 Financing sources limitations .....................................................32 Amount and allocation of the funds from the budget ................33 Regulations on keeping records of income and expenditure ....35 Reporting, inspection and public ............................................... 36 Sanctions ......................................................................................37 Increasing the scope of financing from the budget funds.....................37 Role of state organs in applying the law............................................... 38 Ministry of Finance..................................................................... 38 Assembly Finance Committee .................................................... 39 The Republic Electoral Commission .......................................... 40 Coordination ................................................................................41 Are the Finance Committee and the Republic Electoral Commission adequate bodies for the assigned tasks?............... 42 Approach in regulating presidential campaign financing.....................43 The manner in which the Law regulates the financing of the campaign for the election of the President of the Republic .......43 Financing from the budget General rules............................................................................... 44 Squandering a part of the budget funds.................................... 46 Conflict of rules on the funds allocated to the nominator of the winner .................................................. 46 Funds must initially be raised from private sources ................ 48 Special account for campaign financing ................................... 49 Loan and deferred payment....................................................... 50 Other public sources of financing ...............................................52 Raising funds from private sources.......................................................54 Types of private sources ..............................................................54 Prohibited sources of financing are as follows...........................54 Private sources – ambiguities and possible misuse ...................55 Membership dues.........................................................................55 Income from promotional activities ...........................................56 iv v Contributions .............................................................................. 58 Free work of party activists ....................................................... 58 Who is allowed to give contribution?......................................... 60 Limitation on contribution amount to be given by one donor..............................................................61 Does the Law specify the limitation on expenditure? ............... 62 Limitations regarding the time of incurring the expenses ....... 63 Are there any limitations in terms of expenditure type? .......... 63 Narrower interpretation of campaign costs ............................. 64 Keeping records and submitting reports....................................65 Accessibility of information on campaign costs.........................67 Report control ..............................................................................67 Nemanja Nenadić Regulations And Life.................................................................. 69 The beginning of Law implementation – the obligations of political parties from January 2004................................................. 69 Reports on assets of political parties ..........................................70 The adjustment of political party statutes.................................. 71 Presidential elections from June 2004 "The baptism of fire" of the new Law ....................................................72 The confusion surrounding the interpretation of campaign financing regulations.............................................72 Media and election campaign financing................................................78 Reports on nominators’ collected revenues and campaign expenses .........................................................................79 The filing of reports ....................................................................79 Adherence to correct form of the reports................................... 80 Altering of report forms ............................................................. 80 The seals of nominators and signatures of authorised persons ................................................................. 80 The structure of expenses and submission of unsolicited information ...........................................................81 iv v Discrepancies between revenues and expenses pages .............. 82 The time of collection and spending of funds ............................ 83 Abuse claims ........................................................................................ 84 State expenses in elections.......................................................... 84 How did the nominators manage to cover their expenses?...... 85 Claims pertaining to violations of campaign financing regulations............................................ 86 Campaigns by organisations that are not taking part in the elections..........................................................87 Use of state resources ................................................................. 88 The indicators of level of expenses ....................................................... 89 Data on expenses in the reports ................................................. 90 Expenses for presentation of candidates in newspapers and on TV ............................................................91 Activities by presidential candidates during the campaign ..... 94 Newspaper headlines on level of election campaign expenses ...................................................95 Estimates of level of expenditures based on collected data ................. 96 What can be expected from financial report audits? ........................... 99 Predrag Jovanović Nemanja Nenadić Election success and campaign spending .................................103 The analysis of reports on presidential campaign financing ..............103 The relationship between state and private funding ...............103 The types of private sources used for campaign financing .....106 Membership dues.......................................................................106 Income from party assets..........................................................107 Contributions .............................................................................109 Received contributions and chances for election success......... 110