Transparency in the financing of political parties

ABSTRACT

The main objective of the project executed in the time period from 1 February to 1 July was measurement of the funding spent during a pre-election campaign. The project was aimed at drawing attention to the possibilities of public control and achieving a greater transparency in the flows of political party financing. The study presents the gathered data and the process of project implementation, and includes recommendations as to how to improve transparency in the financing of political parties and public trust in Latvia.

The objective of the project was to put in place an independent observation mechanism, because the law does not oblige anyone to declare expenditure linked to the conducting of pre-election campaigns. The project had three subsequent tasks – by undertaking an independent advertising follow-up to establish the amount of financing spent during the 2001 municipal elections, to ask the political parties to cooperate in provision of the data, and to compare the data received.

The independent advertising observation did not take place through the entire period of the pre-election  campaign therefore the acquired data is not presented with ambition to full precision, however, it gives a fair ground for discussion about the overall spending.

During the project implementation, a discussion evolved about a by-subject: ethics principles of mass media during a pre-election campaign.

Transparency in the financing of political parties

Final report ( Latvian, PDF, 566 KB) ( English, PDF, 377 KB)

Annexes 1 - 7 ( Latvian, PDF 214 KB) ( English, PDF 164 KB)

Annex 8, Reports submitted by parties (Part 1) ( Latvian, PDF 791 KB)

Annex 8. Reports submitted by parties (Part 2) ( Latvian, PDF 521 KB)

Annex 9. Reports submitted by media ( Latvian, PDF, 404 KB)