Amendments to the Law on financing political parties must be approved on the Assembly session which begins tomorrow, if Montenegro wants to send a message ti domestic and international public that is finally ready to create the conditions for the fight against political corruption on the highest level, which is number one priority of our country in the process of EU integration.
Many European officials sent a message to Montenegrin authorities that the adoption of amendments to the Law on financing political parties is crucial in order to restore public confidence in the electoral process, and to stop the abuse of public money and authority for the purpose of the election campaign. The last who have done that is EU Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fule, who urged for the immediate adoption of this law during the debate on the resolution of the progress of Montenegro in the European Parliament.
The present situation in which DPS as a governing party brutally buys votes before every election using state money and employment in the state administration is not sustainable in a country that pretends one day to become a full member of the EU. The behavior of senior officials of government who before the election widely give off welfare, subsidies, loans, forgive taxes and debts for electric and utility use, employ in state and local entities, in order to obtain for their party the highest number of votes, is unknown in developed democratic countries in Europe and beyond.
At the same time, while the ruling party abuses majority of resources of the state and municipalities for the own campaign, because of the holes in the current Law on financing political parties, there is no institution that should prosecute and punish officials responsible for these abuses. The State Election Commission before the previous parliamentary elections declared itself incompetent for these types of procedures, while the State Prosecution Office ignores the largest abuses for a reason to avoid conflict with their bosses in the ruling party.
Therefore, it is urgent the adoption of amendments to the Law on financing political parties which foresees a clear obligation to the State Election Commission, using mechanisms of administrative investigation, to process all cases in which exist suspicion of abuse of state resources and authorities for the purpose of the election campaign. Also, with the new amendments to the law, the mechanisms are in the hands of the State Election Commission to adequately punish those officials who perform such abuses.
In addition, the amendments to the Law provide many others prohibitions of the use of state funds and assets during the election campaign, in order to prevent a governing authority who has in its hands power to buy votes and thus put in a disadvantage all other participants in the electoral race, which then races a question on purpose of participating in election, as well other political parties and citizens. New prohibitions are formulated on the basis of numerous abuses that have been identified through the affair “Snapshot”, and through MANS’s research over the years that served as a platform for file of numerous criminal charges against top official in this country.
Having in mind that the adoption of the amendments to the Law on financing political parties at this time is a crucial domestic and foreign policy priority of Montenegro, we invite the Government that through consensus and without delay adopt this law, to enable its immediate use, in order to secure that the local elections in the Spring are held in relatively equal conditions for all participants, that would also help citizens to built confidence in the electoral process.
Vuk Maras
Director of Monitoring Program
