Money and Politics 7

ŠŠŠĐĐDear,

We are happy to present you the seventh issue of thenewsletter prepared by the Center for Democratic Tran-sition (CDT) in cooperation with partner organizationsfrom the region: Transparency International Bosnia andHerzegovina, Initiative for Progress - Kosovo, CitizensAssociation MOST Macedonia and the Center for De-velopment of Serbia. Publication of the newsletters wasenabled by the Balkan Trust for Democracy (BTD),which has provided financial support for implementationof the project "Money and Politics in the WesternBalkans".

In the new issue of the newsletter, the last in the proj-ect cycle, you may find the conclusions of the regionalround table, which was held in Podgorica on 23 Decem-ber 2013th. You can read about the changes in the elec-toral legislation in Macedonia and Montenegro, changesin the Law on financing political activities and electioncampaigns in Croatia, changes of the by-laws in Bosniaand Herzegovina, as well as the CDT's research on theabuse of public resources for election purposes.

We invite you to continue to follow our work and ourefforts to improve the system of funding of political par-ties of the region.

Respectfully,

Dragan KoprivicaCDT Executive Director

The Central Election Commission of Bosnia andHerzegovina adopted a new Regulation on the an-

nual financial reports and the Regulation of pre-elec-tion and post-election financial reports of politicalentities, according to the amendments to the Law onFinancing of Political Parties, adopted more than a yearago. Amendments to these by-laws again aroused thequestion of the Law, which was derogated to a large ex-tent by the latest changes.

In accordance with it, the Transparency Interna-tional B&H sent a request to the Central ElectionCommission for interpretation of certain provisions,in terms of their implications in the application of theAct and the audit of the financial reports of the parties.

First of all, a provision that allowed the sources ofincome such as "income from publishing, selling thepromotional materials and organizing party rallies" wasconsidered controversial.

So far, the publishing was considered to be a permit-ted activity of companies owned by political parties, andnow this activity, as well as the sales of promotional ma-terials and organization of party rallies, is listed as a sep-arate activity of the party. Also, advertising material andparty rallies are included in the cost of the pre-electioncampaign, so it is necessary to interpret how the partieswill derive revenue from these activities, particularlybearing in mind that they are a non-profit organization,not subjected to the fiscalization and taxation laws.

In addition, the Regulation had introduced theamendments by which the parties in their financial re-ports did not state the identification numbers of cor-porations and individuals who donated to the party,and thus removed barriers of publishing the donors'names, especially having in mind the current attitudeof the CEC that no single source of donations shouldbe published according to the Law on protection ofpersonal data. Therefore, the TI B&H sent the CentralElection Commission a request for information on howthe financial statements will be published in the future.

A positive change in the regulations is related to an ob-ligation for the parties to issue certificates of donations toall corporations and individuals being donors or partymembers, which must be made available to the CEC dur-ing the audit. The Transparency International B&H hopesthat this mechanism will strengthen the control over do-nations, particularly those below 100 BAM, whose re-sources, according to the new Regulation, are not requiredto be named in the financial reports of the parties.

Bosnia and Herzegovina:

New Regulations

• Uvodna riječ --------------------------------1• Transparency International --------------1• CDT ------------------------------------------2• MOST ----------------------------------------4• Regional round table------------------------4• Other sources ----------------------------------8

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ISSN 2336-9515

Money and PoliticsRegional legislation, practice and experienceNewsletter No 7

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Transparency International Bosnia and HerzegovinaAdress: Gajeva 2, 78000 Banja LukaTel: +387 51 216 928, +387 51 224 520, +387 51 224 521Tel/fax: +387 51 216-369E-mail: [email protected], Website: www.ti-bih.org

Money and PoliticsRegional legislation, practice and experience


Montenegro:

Social Welfare benefits grow in election years

The level of public spending on social welfare ben-efits was significantly higher during election years,

which is a possible indicator of abuse of state resources,according to a research conducted by the Centre forDemocratic Transition (CDT). President of this NGOMilica Kovačević stated that the aim of the research car-ried out over the past six months was to comprehen-sively test the claims about misuse of public resourcesfor election purposes and identify trouble spots in thesystem that allows room for abuse. "The electoralprocess in Montenegro is marked by the public suspi-cion of misuse of assets and powers for the purpose ofachieving better election results," said Kovačević.

According to her, this mostly relates to the selectivedistribution of different types of social welfare benefitsand special aid, and to employment of voters of rulingparties in the state administration. Kovačević remindedthat the problem culminated just before and during thepresidential elections in 2013. "Affaire Audio Recordinghas confirmed that public officials do testify about theselective employment of supporters of the ruling par-ties", she added.

The Employment Agency and Human ResourcesManagement Agency do not have data on persons em-ployed.

According to Kovačević, in most cases there was noreaction of the competent authorities whatsoever. Shealso reminded that, in order to try to address this prob-lem, the Parliament adopted Conclusions on BuildingConfidence in the Electoral Process and formed a work-ing group tasked with amendments to the electoral leg-islation aimed at restoring confidence in the electoralprocess. For the research purposes, CDT analyzed an-nual financial statements of the state and municipalitiesfrom 2006 to 2012, and particularly the budget cate-gory 42 - transfers for social welfare benefits at the statelevel and transfers to individuals at the municipal level.Kovačević said that the Tax Office provided data on thenumber of employers with orderly submitted OPD3 ap-plications and the Statistical Office (MONSTAT) em-ployment statistics collected from administrativesources. "A significant portion of the data that wewanted to collect does not exist or is difficult to obtain.Available data is often organized in different and incom-

parable formats, which significantly complicates theiranalysis", said Kovačević. CDT collected data on thenumber of juvenile and adult beneficiaries of social wel-fare, and addressed the Judicial Council in order to ob-tain data on the number of convictions for criminaloffenses that may be related to elections. As she noted,it is very concerning that the Employment Agency hasno data on employment as reported on the criterion ofpublic/private sector, nor does the Pension Fund. "Also,the Human Resources Management Agency does nothave data on the number of persons employed in ad-ministration on an annual basis since its foundation todate". "Bearing in mind these limitations, our goal wasnot to deal with individual examples, but to examinethis problem in more detail by combining differentmethods", explained Kovačević.

Social welfare benefits in 2009 increased by 69 million

General conclusion that CDT reached followingthe analysis of the budget category 42 - transfers forsocial welfare benefits at the state level - is that the ex-penditures rose in 2009 and 2012, the years of parlia-mentary elections. "Our analysis shows significantgrowth - more than 69 million euros in 2009, and thenfall in 2010, followed by a new growth in 2011 and2012", said Kovačević. According to her, it is interest-ing that total public expenditures in 2009 increased by61 million euros as compared to 2008, and that socialwelfare benefits increased by as much as 69 millionduring the said period. It is interesting, as viewed byCDT, that state budget expenditures in 2012 remainedat approximately the same level as in 2011, and that so-cial welfare benefits increased by almost 27 millioneuros. It is also indicative that further growth of theseallocations was planned in the budget for the previousyear, when presidential elections were held, while inthe budget proposal for the next year, when there areno national elections, less money has been planned forthis purpose."Significant increase of social welfare ben-efits in election years is a possible indicator of abuse ofstate resources. However, there are other possible ex-planations", said Kovačević. She explained that the

2 January 2014

Center for Democratic TransitionAddress: VII omladinske bb,

81 000 Podgorica, MontenegroTel: +382 20 207 070, +382 20 207 071Fax: +382 20 207 072E-mail: [email protected]: www.cdtmn.org

growth of these benefits could have occurred for anumber of different reasons, for instance due to achange in social policy or a set of objective economicand social factors such as the closing of large systems,layoffs, redundancies and increased number of peoplein need of social care. "Nevertheless, during this periodthe Government failed to properly present to the pub-lic these major shifts in the conduct of social policy orexplain the reasons for it, so doubt remains that the in-crease was associated with the elections", saidKovačević.

13 municipalities increased transfers to individuals

Research carried out by CDT has shown that spend-ing under item 4313 - transfers to individuals–was sig-nificantly increased in election years at the local leveltoo, in at least 13 municipalities. Data collected by CDTthrough the analysis of annual financial statementsshow that municipalities Herceg Novi, Bar, Kolašin,Kotor, Plav, Rožaje, Tivat and Ulcinj increased their so-cial spending in the election years. "Immediately afterthe election year there was a decrease, although the de-crease was followed by an increase in the municipalbudget", stated Kovačević. She added that there are sev-eral municipalities, whose spending grew significantlyin the years of parliamentary and presidential elections,although local elections were not held in these munici-palities. "What is common to all municipalities is a highlevel of discretion in deciding on the allocation ofmoney to individuals, which is a source of potentialabuse", noted Kovačević. According to her, practices aredifferent at the municipal level, and the aforesaid item- transfers to individuals - includes a variety of expenses."The only rule is that the allocations under this itemvary significantly from year to year", said Kovačević.

Significant number of citizens dependent on the state

With regard to employment, data submitted to CDTby the Tax Office show that in public sector, in the pe-riod from 2006 to 2010,the average number of submit-ted tax returns was around 30 thousand, accounting forabout 23 per cent of the total number of registered em-ployees. On the other hand, data submitted to CDT byMONSTAT indicate that during the same period an av-erage of 50 thousand people were employed in activities

that predominantly belong to the public sector, repre-senting about 31 per cent of the total number of em-ployees. According to Kovačević," although it is clearthat a different methodology of data collection has beenemployed, such significant differences in the number ofemployees may indicate that public companies submiterroneous tax returns". She also noted that the currentdata suggest that a significant number of citizens ofMontenegro, directly or indirectly, depend on the state."If we also take into consideration the information pro-vided by MONSTAT that during the period 2006-2010there was on average about 52 thousand juvenile andadult beneficiaries of social welfare n Montenegro, it isclear that the state has an influence on a large numberof people, which can be a source of potential misuse ofresources for electoral purposes", said Kovačević.

No punishment

Kovačević said that the data CDT received from theJudicial Council "sounds incredible". "Only one proce-dure was initiated for the crime of Violation of electoralfreedom of choice in 2012, which resulted in four ac-quittals", explained Kovačević. She added that in thepast three years no court case was initiated or a judg-ment passed with regard to crimes Violation of equalityat employment and Illegal mediation. "These are thefirst, preliminary research findings. CDT will presentfinal results in the upcoming period, and submit its rec-ommendations to improve existing regulations andpractices to competent state authorities", saidKovačević.

3 January 2014



Center for Democratic TransitionAddress: VII omladinske bb,

81 000 Podgorica, MontenegroTel: +382 20 207 070, +382 20 207 071Fax: +382 20 207 072E-mail: [email protected]: www.cdtmn.org

On 23rd of January the Assembly of the Republic ofMacedonia adopted the new amendments of the

Election Code, by consensus of all the major politicalparties, except for the main opposition party from theAlbanian bloc, DPA.

In a positive development, the nature of the thresh-old for donations from legal persons was finallychanged, and now is set at 50.000 €, instead of 5% fromthe total annual income.

It is interesting that the proposal from the workinggroup (of which MOST was part of) was 30.000 €, butthe Ministry of Justice did not accept this recommen-dation and did not include it in the draft law.

However, this was also one of the demands from themain opposition party, SDSM, and in the political bar-gaining the political parties reached consensus for thepresent solution which was one of the OSCE/ODIHRrecommendations.



Macedonia:

Election Code amendments

The regional round table discussion "Money andpolitics" was held in Podgorica on December 23,

2013.The event was organized with the aim to contribute

to the improvement of the system of funding of politi-cal parties through the interchange of experience anddiscussion about the legal framework, transparency, su-pervision of party financing and practice in Montene-gro and neighboring countries. The participants wererelevant experts from the region, members of the Par-liament of Montenegro, representatives of the institu-tions, civil society organizations and the media. Theevent had three panels, and the conclusions and topicsthat were discussed can be found in the articles that fol-low.

PANEL ICitizens’ trust in election process and political par-

ties in Montenegro- The Working Group will not wait for the EC's an-

swers-

The representative of the Democratic Front (DF)Goran Danilović said at the conference "Money and Pol-itics" organized by the CDT with the financial supportfrom the BTD, that they will not wait with the ElectionLaw until February or March.

"Well, if we are going to wait for someone to speakout in February or March, and that person has the op-portunity to stand out all the time, I am not in. Even if itbe God the Father, not the EC, I will not wait. If they hadsomething to say, they should have done it by now. Wewere the defrauded ones at the elections, not them", said

Danilović and added:"I understand (Mitja) Drobnič. He is not in a rush,

but I am - I want to adopt the new standards. So youcan send the request in August or September, and re-ceive the response in December saying that you have towait until March. In March, they will say that the elec-tions were fair and according to democratic standards.Let the gentleman or gentlemen take the responsibilityand explain to the public why we are now in this situa-tion."

The deadline is not important to DPS

DF's representative said that the fate of the Law onfinancing political parties was linked to the destiny of theWorking Group.

"There is a possibility to finish the work with great re-sults, or to end up with nothing. As the time passes, I'mmore pessimistic and I am not sure what will happen tillthe end. We cannot invent anything new", said Danilović.

Branko Čavor, the DPS’s representative, also said thehe was pessimistic at the initiation of the Working Groupbecause there was a need to compromise and meet theinterests of the parties, but also to take care of profes-sionalism in the work.

"The experts who are with us and also in the EUshould be involved, so they can help us to compromisewith the neutral view. And we are eager to have good lawsand the regulated system. We will continue to con-tribute."

Čavor said that he didn't support the quick solutionsand limited terms, and that they were preferable to goodlong-term laws, that would not be changed in a year.

Regional round table:

Money and Politics

4 January 2014

Citizen’s Association MOSTAddress: Vanco Mickov 18b, 1000 Skoplje, MacedoniaTel: + 389 2 3099 384Fax: + 389 2 3086 430Website: www.most.org.mk

Positive: Is the non-party SEC real?

Asked whether this regulated SEC may control theparties, Danilović said that the institution had a supervi-sory and control role, and that it was on the DemocraticParty of Socialists to assume it or not.

"We will show them that we are not easy to be tricked.DPS has its private funding source, but it is not the casewith the opposition. We don't receive a cent in that way;we do not have the state goods. We interview the publiconce in four years, while Mugoša and Marović do it forDPS", said Danilović.

However, Mladen Bojanić from the Positive Mon-tenegro said that he would like to have a non-party SEC.

"Is it real? I don't know. It is the only real solution up tonow. We have adopted these provisions at the last sessionof the sub-groups, but the attitude of DPS is unknown."

Talking about the responsibilities of the institutionsthat are supposed to oversee the work of parties, Bojanićsays that the audit itself takes time.

"It takes time and it is usually conducted after theelection process. The society has benefit only in the nextelection. With the new proposal, the SEC can directlyreact in the election process", he added.

The same for KAP and DF

During the first panel, the President of CDT MilicaKovačević pointed out that the audit is not the same asthe control. She reiterated that CDT opposed the pro-posal that the state guaranteed for the parties.

"The issue of the credit is a problem; a good practicesuggests that political parties should not be dependenton the public sources. The violation of law is cheap. Themaximum penalty is 20.000 euros", she said.

Bojanić answered that the parties were forced to fi-nance their work and that they were in a problem becausethey didn’t have properties:

"We did not have the financial history of our business... We could not apply for loans, although we had guar-anteed with our personal property. DPS had the propertyfor a guarantee, but we did not. The money is importantduring the campaign, none is waiting for you."

He said that part of the budget money was paid di-rectly to the bank as repayment of the debt, through theMinistry of Finance:

"The state should not guarantee to all of our loans,just as long as we have the results on the latest elections."

Neither Danilović has anything against the govern-ment guarantees for the parties.

"It would be fair that the state guarantees for loans tothe parties, when it has guaranteed 100 million euros tounknown people. Here it guarantees for its political sub-ject", he said.

During the discussion about the problems in the po-litical parties funding, Čavor said that there were con-stant rumors about the lack of political will, while thepractice showed the opposite:

"If the point was in it, we would not come to form aWorking group on the opening chapters 23 and 24. Thismeans that there is a political will. From the nineGRECO recommendations, five are completely fulfilled,and four partly."

He believes that the SEC capacity should be strength-ened and freshened with the professionals.

PANEL IIOversight of political parties financing – Montene-

gro and region- Parties do not find expensive to break the law -

The supervision over the implementation of laws andthe revision should be separated, and sanctions shouldbe better adapted, so it could be easier to impose apenalty if the political entities do not respect the law, aswell as to deprive them of the money from the budget,said a member of the Senate of the State Audit Institution(SAI), Nikola Kovačević.

"The SAI recommends to regulate the issue of cam-paign financing from loans and borrowings by amend-ments to the Act, and to determine the limit to whichthey can borrow, as well as the deadline and the sourceof funds to return money, also to specify the administra-tion of business books - the Ministry of Finance shouldmake a regulation and systematize it, and to distinguishthe responsibilities of institutions for monitoring andcontrol with the new law", said Kovačević.

He declared on the round table "Money and Politics",organized by the CDT within the panel "Party FoundingSupervision - Montenegro and the Region", that accord-

5 January 2014



6 January 2014



ing to the SAI, the supervision over the implementationof laws and audit should be separated.

"The SEC should take care of supervision, and theSAI of the audit. The sanctions should be better adapted,so the political parties may face the penalty if they do notrespect the law and be deprived of the money from thebudget", he said.

According to Kovačević, it should be prescribed thatthose who have contributions of more than 20 thousandeuros must be controlled every year, while those withlower income should be controlled if needed and evalu-ated.

"We believe that the SAI should enjoy financial andfunctional independence, that the budget should set thecompetent authority of the Assembly to our proposal,and that we determine on our own which entity will berevised, for example, next year. We believe that we haveto be able to strengthen the institution of the SEC per-sonnel without the approval of the executive branch",said Kovačević.

The audit for the Capital city

As he said, the SAI is not authorized to submit themisdemeanors and it should be regulated.

"Regarding the criminal charges, the SAI is requiredto submit the application if it determines that there is asuspicion of a criminal offense. It is a collective authority- we sometimes give a negative opinion, but we are notsure whether there is a crime."

"We do not run away from submitting the criminalcharges when we consider that there is a crime. In caseswhere we give the negative opinion, we inform the publicprosecutor. Our documentation is only part of the evi-dence that eventually leads against the person responsiblefor the crime", said Kovačević.

Answering the question of the President of PositiveMontenegro's Youth Luka Rakčević, weather the SAI didthe audit of the Capital city, Kovačević said that the auditof political parties burdened the SAI.

"We had been working on 26 political entities, plusthe campaign for the parliamentary parties. It completelyfills a good part of the DRI's annual plan."

"There are a large number of subjects to be con-trolled, and we have only five sectors. The capital andthe companies are part of the sector five, in which thereare nine people working with the member of the Senate,and they are supposed to control over 400 entities. Theaverage per sector is five audits in a year", saidKovačević.

According to him, the municipality of Podgorica willquickly come to the table for the audit.

"Two municipalities will be covered this year; I can-not say which ones because the annual plan is up to beacknowledged. We are baffled by the local elections in 14municipalities, and it is not a practice to control theirconsolidated accounts in the election year", saidKovačević.

Donors receive benefits

Ružica Stojiljković from the Anti-Corruption Agencyfrom Serbia said that the Agency is unable to prove theabuse when it comes to individuals.

"In 2011 election year in Serbia, more than six thou-sand individuals donated money to parties, and about300 contributors were legal entities. The Agency will con-tinue to monitor what is going on with them. We have es-tablished contact with other institutions in order to seewhich of them has achieved the procurement since then",she said.

According to Stojiljković, the Agency controlled thereport for 2012.

7 January 2014



"Legal entities are forbidden to finance parties unlessthey have settled tax liabilities and obligations. Agencysubmitted 389 abuse charges, but only 17 were adjudi-cated with minimal penalties. We also have a legal limitthat the campaign money must be returned from thecampaign funds, but there is no government guarantee",she said.

PANEL IIIRole of CSOs and media in monitoring of political

parties' financing and election campaigns- Media don’t have time for money and politics -

Apart from the daily political events and a number ofparties' activities in media coverage of election cam-paigns, journalists in Montenegro, but also in the region,do not have time to deal in detail with the matters ofparty funding and the relationships between money andpolitics. That was concluded on the third panel "The Roleof Civil Society and the Media in Monitoring the PartyFunding and the Election Campaigns", within the con-ference "Money and Politics", organized by the Centerfor Democratic Transition, with financial support fromthe Balkan Trust for Democracy (BTD).

The editor of Mina News Agency Milan Žugić saidthat due to the lack of time in the media, there are not somany analytical articles on this subject.

"Journalists are torn between 4-5 events per day, andwhen in the course of the campaign, they do not havemore space for those subjects. The parties are closed andit is difficult to obtain information, especially when itcomes to donations of individuals", said Žugić.

He recalled the list of people who donated money toDPS, which was published in the media:

"The media have a list of 200 people who donatedmoney to DPS and it all came down to whether the jour-nalists misused the identification number, and whethera violation of the Law on Personal Data occurred. No onedealt with it in more detail."

"Albona", a donation from the SEC...

The editor of Mina News Agency did not forget theexample of "Albona" director who recently said that hewas financing the campaign of Miodrag Lekić, and thathe previously also financially helped DPS.

"The party and the director denied it the day after.And that was the end of the story", said Žugić.

The executive director of CDT Dragan Koprivica re-called the case of the President of the SEC Ivan Kalezić,

who donated money for the campaign of DPS. Koprivicaasked the journalist how to find the line between objec-tive analysis on this topic and sensationalism that peoplelike to read.

"Information on this subject must be accurate andcomplete and there is no need to go for sensationalism.People understand it better when it is simplified...," Žugićreplied.

He finds it difficult to determine who gives money tothe parties and in which amount.

"People don't want to be recognized, they fear thatthey could be in problem if they are known as financiers.For example, it was agreed at the meeting of the WorkingGroup that the state should pay even the party observers.However, in cooperation with the CDT, we managed tostop it. There is always space to conceal a fraud...," saidthe editor of the only news agency in Montenegro.

What’s the case in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Mace-donia?

Svetlana Ćelić, a journalist from the Center for Inves-tigative Reporting in B&H, said that her organizationdealt with the properties of the parties and politician, andthat they were making parallels on what politicians hadat the beginning and at the end of the term, and whetherthey increased their assets.

"We found a problem of assets that are outside ofBosnia and Hercegovina. We know that they have villasin Cyprus, flats in Milano... but that is all unavailable forus. We were also dealing with the properties that are notreported. If we talk about corruption, our country is cor-rupted. A MP in our Parliament gets about 7.000 CM,while the average salary is 700 marks."

Aleksandra Markovska from the Transparency Inter-national of Macedonia emphasized that the institutionsin her country were not willing to cooperate with civilsociety organizations as they expected.

"Only 30 percent of the parties have their own web-sites in Macedonia, and their financial report should bepublished online. Transparency's data in Macedoniashowed that in 2011 only 11 percent of political partiessubmitted their final accounts, in 2012 it was the casewith only 13 percent of the parties, while in 2013 it is ex-pected to be 29 percent", she said.

Samir Reka from the organization INPO Kosovo re-ported that Kosovo's companies associated with the partyin power got jobs worth about 100 million euros throughthe government tenders.

8 January 2014



Montenegro: The Election Law The small embroidery

Source: Weekly Monitor (www.monitor.co.me)

The fate of the Election Law, as well as the destiny ofthe other laws in this country, is in the reliable hands ofthe Democratic Party of Socialists. DPS's representativeMilutin Simović has informed us these days that it hasbeen flourishing as always.

"I'm sure that the next local elections, like all the pre-vious ones, will be the holiday of democracy in Montene-gro."

It all adds up - what kind of democracy we have, that ishow our holiday looks like - for the time being, we willenjoy the magic of DPS's elections until further notice.From the perspective of the thief, well done theft is a busi-ness success.

The Working Group for Building Confidence in theElectoral Process was working hard for months, and itswork was almost finished - with no results. The authoritydid not start the whole business voluntary, but under pres-sure from the European institutions after publishing "Sni-mak". The Working Group was formed at the same time asthe Inquiry Committee, whose work was at first stultifiedby DPS, and then declared as finished. Regarding the elec-toral legislation, they used “the small embroidery".

Opposition representatives in the Working Groupcomplained about the obstruction of DPS almost since itsformation. There were infinite bargains about who shouldlead the electoral register, whether the work should be per-formed at three different locations as it was the case so far,how to prevent a supernatural phenomenon that peoplefrom the other side of various oceans manage to reach theelectoral register and the like. With the mastery gained bytime, DPS successfully subjected demands of the opposi-tion - although sometimes poorly articulated - to differentbureaucratic procedures and did everything to choose thehardest way towards the solution for the manipulation ofthe will of citizens.

In a letter sent to the President of Parliament RankoKrivokapić in late December, co-chairmen Srđan Milić andMilutin Simović said that after months of work, the Work-ing Group did not fulfill its task and that the further workwas uncertain. DPS's MP Miodrag Vuković inspiredly ex-plained to website Analitka what the problem was.

"The opposition expected that their particular interestswould be incorporated into the election legislation andthat their solutions would be part of it. Those radical in-

novations suggested by opposition were not acceptable forus; it would be a normative basis cure for many defeat suf-ferings and the winner's declaration for the next elections,not being even called."

Vuković said that all local elections this year would beheld by valid, current election laws.

Then, a collegium was held in the Parliament, and themembers of the Working Group had a talk with MitjaDrobnič, Head of the EU Delegation to Montenegro.Monitor's sources said that Drobnič made it clear that theEU expected the new legislation and if it lacked, the elec-tions for the next four years could be flagged as suspicious.Afterwards, as it was published, there was an agreementthat the proposals of new laws on the election of councilorsand representatives and election register would be deter-mined. The President of the Parliament Ranko Krivokapićoptimistically announced that he expected six electionlaws to be completed by the end of February, and that thelocal elections in the spring will be held under the newelection legislation.

Dragan Koprivica, the Executive Director of the Cen-ter for Democratic Transition, who was a member of theWorking Group, said to Monitor that Krivokapić's state-ment was pretty brave and optimistic.

"It appears almost impossible for the new State Elec-tion Commission to be formed and to start running in twoor three months, especially considering the significantlyincreased workload. It also seems impossible for the Min-istry of Internal Affairs to take all the tasks related to theelectoral register of the municipalities, to prepare a newdatabase, to obtain and implement a system that controlswhether there are some double-issued documents. In thatshort period, it is not realistic to expect them to invite atender for the purchase of the electronic voting machines,to implement all that at the polling stations, and to trainthe voting committees, and also the citizens for the newvoting rules."

According to the representative of the DemocraticFront Goran Danilović, the latest deal in the Parliamentwas more like the next step towards the fair parliamentaryelections, then to local.

"Even though something is going on, we should care-fully consider how the opposition will participate in thelocal elections which, as it is reasonably suspected, willallow the authorities to continue with the abuse."

And if the new Law on Election of Councilors and MPsis adopted, there is no chance for the part on which theopposition bank on the most - the electronic identificationof voters - to be applied to local elections. The possible for-

Other sources...

9 January 2014

mation of the new National Electoral Commission issomething that Danilović sees as "the better conditions"for the elections.

The CDT believes that the Electoral Commissionshould be made as a professional and independent institu-tion without political parties' representatives.

"We insisted on non-party Election Commission thathas its own budget and is made up of people who are com-petent for the job. Our opinion is that those who partici-pate in the selection process cannot organize the processor be "judges" in it, and make decisions about its correct-ness. We consider it absurd that the party's SEC controlsthe finance of the same party", said Dragan Koprivica.

He believes that the failure of the Working Group andother non-adoption of the Election Law will negatively im-pact primarily on the image of the Parliament as well as onthe assessment of Montenegro's progress, because thedemocratic elections are the foundation of every stable anddeveloped country.

The CDT's Survey on the Misuse of Public Resourcesfor the Election Purposes presents part of the milieu inwhich the elections are held in Montenegro, confirmingthat here it is hard to achieve democratic elections. Thegeneral conclusion, to which the CDT came by analyzingthe social spending in the state budget, is that expenses hadrisen in the years of parliamentary elections - 2009 and2012.

"Our analysis shows a significant increase, more than69 million euros in 2009, then a fall in 2010 and re-growthduring the 2011 and 2012", said the President of CDT Mil-ica Kovačević.

According to her, it is interesting that the total statespending in 2009 was 61 million euros more than in 2008,and during that period, social benefits were increased by69 million. CDT considers it also interesting that thebudget expenditure in 2012 remained at approximately thesame level as in 2011, and that the social benefits increasedto almost 27 million euros.

Apart from the social benefits, the authority managesthe electoral registers, the state and local election commis-sions, job positions, flour, chocolate and other heavyequipment. In such circumstances, the electoral victory isjust waiting to be picked. And now, however we take it,DPS, according to its own criteria, has made a success. Inaddition to the recent elections in three municipalities inwhich they won by the consistent application of themethod recorded in affair "Snimak", DPS managed tomaintain the same electoral framework for elections in Ul-cinj and Berane. No serious changes will be noticed in thespring elections in 11 municipalities, including the capital- Podgorica, where a third of Montenegrin citizens live.There is no base for a hope.

The opinion that wherever the opposition eventuallyachieves a narrow victory, DPS manages to abduct it; canbe clearly heard in the opposition circles. The idea thata grandmother might have to pay two pennies to comeout of the round is heard sometimes almost under thebreath. If it loses all the upcoming locals, what will bethe ace for the next parliamentary elections - the oppo-sition knows.

Miloš Bakić

Croatia: Constitutional Court abolished the part ofthe Law for which the SDP lost 5 million HRK

Source: GONG (www.gong.hr)

At�the�request�of�the�SDP,�the�Constitutional�Court�an-nulled�the�clause�of�the�Law�on�financing�political�activitiesand�election�campaigns�for�which�the�party�was�fined�five�mil-lion�HRK�for�not�publishing�the�financial�report�on�time.�"The laws must be respected, even when they are mean-ingless and unconstitutional", said the Prime MinisterZoran Milanović after his party SDP was "late" with thepublication of the annual financial report for which the Na-tional Audit Office requested the SDP to be denied ofthree months’ amount from the state budget. Milanovićalso announced that they would launch the legal proceed-ings so it would be on the court to decide whether it waslegal, right and equitably. The announced was done.



10 January 2014



A violation of the principle of proportionality

On behalf of the SDP, lawyer Vesna Alaburić made aproposal to review the constitutionality of the clause 42 ofthe Law on financing political activities and election cam-paigns, which refers to the administrative sanctions for allparties and independent MPs who break the rules for pub-lishing the annual financial reports. Alaburić emphasizedthat the impugned clause was not in accordance with theConstitution and international human rights regulations.

As explained by the judge rapporteur Aldo Radolović,SDP accepted the obligation of accountability, but notwith the sanctions considered to ultimately jeopardize theright of free association and the establishment of politicalparties guaranteed by the Constitution: "The proponentcalled the provision a flagrant violation of the principle ofproportionality; he said that the provision made the normand the execution of norm and noted that the norm didnot allow tinting sanctions to some particular case."

In fact, it did not matter whether the report was notpublished or was published with a delay of several hours.However, in the case of the SDP, the accent was on a fewdays delay, but the double punishment was also consideredcontroversial because a fine and the loss of eligibility forfunding from the state budget were intended for those whobroke the law.

Contamination and the abuse of the system

The Constitutional Court considered that the impugnedclause was in conflict with the Constitution, which guaran-tees freedom of association; actually, as Radolović said, aftera series of discussions and analysis, the constitutional judgesconsidered that "the clause had its legitimate purpose, andit was guaranteeing the transparency of political parties, butthe applied means exceeded that goal and was inadequatein achieving the goal. Parliamentary democracy or multi-party political system is one of the greatest constitutionalvalues. The establishment and the work of the parties shouldbe free, and they must be committed to the common goodand creation of the competitive program that will be offeredto voters. That's why their funding should be made publicin order to avoid contamination of powerful groups and in-dividuals who would abuse the system."

The penalties for getting out of the frame must be pro-vided in future legal solution, but they must be propor-tionate to the pursued aim. According to Mina NewsAgency, the president of the Constitutional Court JasnaOmejec said that when it came to transparency of disposal

budget money, out of the provision that had to be repealedwe could see the good intention of the legislator to disci-pline the parties and MPs. However, when sanctions be-come fines for violations, and at the same time we alsohave administrative punishment by subtracting the quar-terly amount of funding, so if you decide on a politicalbody composed of representatives of the parties that arepunished, we have a solution that is disproportionate, butalso contrary to the requirements arising from the princi-ple of the rule of law."

The future legal solutions are important

"This decision brings order in the regulations govern-ing the funding of parties and campaigns, bringing sanc-tions proportionate to the seriousness of the offense,because it is not the same if the party, regardless of whichone, does not report or delivers it late, or if it submits thefalse report. This decision, however, does not mean loos-ening the Law on financing political activities and electioncampaigns because there will still be an obligation of re-porting and the default deadline, and the issue of the su-pervision of the financial operations of the parties is alsoimportant, especially during the election campaigns whenthere is more money circulation," said the executive direc-tor of GONG, Dragan Zelić, and concluded:

"It is important that the State Election Commission ul-timately decides on administrative sanctions in the future,not that the Parliament punishes the political parties so ithappens that one political party that has a majority pun-ishes itself. That should be done by an independent body,and then it comes to respect for the rule of law. So, this isa good decision of the Constitutional Court, although, ofcourse, we can talk about the timing of the decision andquestion whether it has any repercussion on the relationsbetween the Government and the Constitutional Court."

This decision of the Constitutional Court, as MediaServices communicates, and Tportal.hr reports, was com-mented by Milanović.

After the summit of the EU, journalists askedMilanović what would be the legal consequences of thisdecision of the Constitutional Court and he said:

"If it has repealed the clause, then the legal conse-quences of the clause will be removed. However, consid-ering the fact that we as the Government didn't give theoutput to the Constitutional Court, because we thoughtwe were in a conflict of interest since the majority of theministers are from SDP, I will not comment on it now,maybe tomorrow at the party conference. "

Money and Politics 7

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