The Republic Election Commission tried to put and end to a story of illegitimacy in financing of political parties and adopted an incomplete report that includes no names of the donors, or the overall amount the parties spent in their election campaign. The parties showed an impressive consensus concerning the donor’s issue – ‘’united we stand, divided we fall’’, and there are no pointing fingers at each other. 

The experts deem that the answer to this is a simple one – if they were to disclose the tycoons, the parties would reveal whose interest they would represent while on power. The Republic Election Commission has no comment regarding this matter being a political body made up of party representatives. Two nights ago, The Republic Election Commission adopted a Report on the Financing of Election Campaign of 21 January, declaring that the only party that stepped the line was the party of Mr. Bogoljub Karic, Serbian Power Movement. This party, by the way, was eliminated from politics long time ago. Debts and lesser financial inaccuracies in the financial statements of certain political parties represent an insignificant item. There is no mentioning of the parties’ financiers, how much money did they get, and how much does the campaign cost? According to the experts, the parties publicly acknowledged the extent of their transparency and their willingness to face the corruption. 

-The most serious corruption evolves the financing of the parties, because if we were to know who financed them, we would know whose interest they represented. We would know why some laws were adopted or not, and why are they bad- says Mrs. Verica Barac, the President of the Ant-Corruption Council. 

She states further that ‘’ we can not find out how the parties are financed because the Law was designed precisely not to disclose this, and you can no expect the parties to give away who finances them’’.

The Republic Election Commission, however, represents a relevant body and if there was a political will the Commission could ask for additional data and investigate the party financing, even by simple monitoring of the commercial adds where good proportion of money went. 

-It is obvious, still, that there is no political will since the Report was adopted. The way things are, it is clear that this is all a part of the political arrangement because in the end the Republic Election Commission represents a political organization – says Mr. Nemanja Nenadic, Executive Director of the ‘’Transparency Serbia’’. 

Parties specified the purpose for each spent dinar in the Report, and everything fits. Mr. Dordje Vukovic, Program Director of CeSid, however, points out to an additional problem.

-We are not aware if the reports are valid, because there is no relevant body to deal with this issue. Parties elect their representatives to the Republic Election Commission, and this is a main reason why they do not want to point fingers at each other. The process of control, nonetheless, should have started at the same time as the elections, monitoring, for instance, the amount of broadcast commercial adds, and adding up the overall amount – says Mr. Vukovic. He states further that the Law on Financing of Parties is a rigid one, and that it should be changed. 

-The overall amount of the money the parties are allowed to spend pursuant to Law is around 68 million dinars which is insufficient for the campaign. All relevant parties had to break the Law, i.e. to choose between breaking the Law or not entering the Parliament, and so decided that it is better to exonerate them latter – claims Mr. Vukovic.

The financing of parties in Serbia continues to be a great unknown. According to Mrs. Barac, it represents an indisputable intention of the political parties with enormous powers, and no responsibilities. 
- And behind them stand people with money who finance them, and manage to make the authorities to favor the interest of the tycoons. Sometimes I feel, and this Report clearly indicates this, that we spent years in order to get the tycoons legalized – says Mrs. Barac.