The experts of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) presented today in the Assembly the Draft Opinion on the Law on the Financing of Political Entities and Election Campaigns and announced the final opinion in a few weeks.
The Head of the Department for Legislative Support of the ODIHR, Ann Liz Chatelain, said that they are not there to write the law, but to help Montenegro draft that act.
In its preliminary opinion, ODIHR recommends considering the extension of the right to funding from the budget, so that it would also include parties that are not represented in the state parliament or local assemblies, which would enable non-parliamentary and newly founded parties to have the right to funding.
Greater regulation of non-monetary contributions from private donors is also recommended, that there is a list of debts in the annual reports, because there is a problem of repayment from third parties, which is also a donation.
ODIHR also recommends setting limits on the amount of donations in order to account for inflation, based on some form of indexation, rather than absolute amounts.
It is also recommended that membership fees and sponsorships be defined in the law as contributions, in order to prevent their use for the purpose of avoiding the maximum allowed amount of donations.
ODIHR experts recommend considering the possibility of allowing certain foreign donations to parties. They said that it should be done carefully, because there is an interest in protecting Montenegro from malignant external influences through donations from abroad.
They also point out that the powers and responsibilities of the Agency for the Prevention of Corruption (ASK) are broad, but it lacks full investigative powers and direct access to certain databases. "Without sufficient investigative powers, including on-site inspection, it may be a challenge for any supervisory authority to effectively detect illegal sources of funding for political parties or campaigns," they said.
ODIHR believes that the KAS should be given the authority to draft and publish guidelines specifying the specific criteria for determining the amount of fines. They believe that fines should be determined on the basis of indexation in order to avoid their rapid obsolescence.
Member of the Europe Now Movement and member of the Working Group for Drafting the Law, Vasilije Čarapić said that the Working Group also proposed that non-parliamentary parties also receive money from the budget.
Acting Director of KAS, Dušan Drakić, said that it is important to deal with the causes, not the consequences. He said he regretted not being involved in the process of amending the law, given that he was recently appointed, but announced that he would be involved soon.
He also pointed out the territorial restrictions when it comes to local elections and that care should be taken not to circumvent the rules.
Bonus video: