Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/290775
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 6 APRIL 2014 10 News Political financing • What are the parties saying? Regularisation of parties Registration of Parties Accounting Donations Expenses Loans Commercial activity Party properties Government Political parties will have a legal status and the Constitutional right of association and non-association to parties will be "enhanced". The white paper also proposed the establishment of an internal disciplinary structure within political parties on its members, with the right of appeal to Court on points of law to Court. Parties can be dissolved if endorsed by two thirds of its members or in exceptional cases by Court order on the request of any voter. Exceptional cases include instances where a political party advocates principles which go against democracy, or performs criminal activities or constantly uses violence as a political tool. The Electoral Commission will be elevated to a regulatory body, especially over party finances. Every political party should be registered in a register, which is kept by the Electoral Commission. The draft law stipulates that a party should have: a leader, an official who is responsible for the electoral nominees and treasurers responsible for the managing of the political party's finances. Parties must also submit a Structured Plan on how it intends to abide by the rules related to financial criteria. The commission will also regulate the use of emblems to ensure that voters are not confused and have the power to accept or otherwise the registration in toto or in parte. If an application is rejected, parties will have a right of appeal from the final decision to the First Hall Civil Court. Parties will be granted three months from the date the law comes into force to regulate themselves and submit their registration applications. Described as the most important part of the law, the white paper proposes that the role of the Electoral Commission is extended and more power is bestowed upon it in dealing with the financing of political parties. The parties will have the obligation to answer to the Electoral Commission which will be given the power to investigate how funds are acquired and disposed of by the political parties. If a party breaches the law, it is being proposed that the regulator can impose sanctions, including public pronouncements, fines and administrative procedures against that party. Party accounts and all relative documents are to be handed over to the Electoral Commission within four months from the end of the relative financial year, and as soon as the Electoral Commission receives the audited statement of accounts, this statement would be accessible to the public within one month. The treasurer's office will given substantial responsibilities for the keeping the accounts which should provide a statement of the profit and loss, containing enough information so that one can easily identify all sources of entry, all the expenditure and the way in which the relative transactions were made. The party's assets and debts must also be submitted and kept for at least ten years. Anonymous donations from one source in one financial year are capped at €500. Every donation which amounts to more than €500 must be registered internally by the parties and included in the annual accounts which are sent to the commission. Every donation in one year between €10,000 and €50,000 from the same source will have to be reported directly to the Electoral Commission in a specific report. Donations in one year which amount to more than €50,000 from the same source are illegal. Political parties should not be given donations from non-Maltese sources with the exception of donations received from citizens who are members of the European Union, or donations received from affiliated foreign political associations. Donations need not be monetary donations but even objects or sponsorship, and in that case the market value of that object or sponsorship will be registered. Every donation or donations by the same source of €500 or more in one financial year should be registered, including the name, surname and address of the person and the date of donation. Administrative penalties should be imposed if a political party fails to do so. The Treasurer must prepare a report dealing with donations, where he logs all the donations from the same source which individually or when put together amount to €10,000 or more in the same year. The reports dealing with donations should be sent to the Electoral Commission who shall make them accessible to the public. Candidates' expenses before or during the general elections cannot exceed €25,000. The threshold for European elections is set at €50,000 while that for local elections is set at a maximum of €5,000 in proportion to the number of voters in the respective localities. Candidates should be obliged to report to the Electoral Commission every donation, sponsorship or financial aid coming from the same source and that when one adds them together in the same financial year amount to €500 or more. There is no reference whatsoever to loans in the white paper. The white paper does not make a clear reference to the parties' commercial activities. The white paper does not make reference to public property in use by parties. What's the lowdown on party financing? A guide to the party financing white paper and the political parties' proposals THE white paper on the regula- tion of political party financing and candidates is long overdue, however the first concrete pro- posal to regulate parties in 165 years has exposed a number of discrepancies between the three political parties. Malta is the only country in Eu- rope – alongside Albania – not to have a law regulating party financing, and the white paper proposed by Justice Minister Owen Bonnici in February, was welcomed by all parties. However, the white paper omits a number of key aspects to party financing, mainly the complete exclusion of state funding. In reaction, both the Nationalist Party and Alternattiva Demokra- tika, who have been calling for such a law since their inception in the late 80s, have drawn up their own counter proposals. As expected there are a few marked differences between the parties' positions. Apart from the cosmetic differences over the thresholds for donations and expenditures, the main diver- gences revolve over who should be the regulator, the registration of parties and how and when the donations should be registered. Moreover, the white paper, which was described as "unsat- isfactory" by the Council of Eu- rope's Group of States against Corruption (GRECO), makes no reference to a number of issues, such as loans and the public property used by political par- ties. jbalzan@mediatoday.com.mt Jurgen Balzan