During an extraordinary session on Monday, Parliament approved several changes in the Law on Political Parties, in particular in the articles dealing with the financing of the electoral campaign.
According to the amendments, the only source of campaign financing that are allowed for political parties are the following:
- Funds distributed by the State Budget for political parties registered as electoral subjects;
- Legally generated income of the electoral subject;
- Gifts with a value in terms of money, goods, or services not exceeding 1 million lekë;
- Legally obtained loans not exceeding 1 million lekë.
Any violation of these regulations on campaign expenses will be punished with a fine of 1 up to 3 million lekë.
Any political party that takes part in the elections is not allowed to spend more than the cap determined by the Electoral Code art. 90(3):
The total expenses that a political party, including its candidates, is allowed to make for an electoral campaign should not exceed 10 times the largest sum that the electoral subject has received from public funds.
Within 60 days after the announcement of the election results, every political party that has registered for the elections has to publish a Report for the Financial Declaration of the Campaign, which contains income and expenses, together with their sources, of the party during the electoral campaign. The Report also has to be submitted to the Central Election Commission (KQZ).
The KQZ will be tasked with monitoring the implementation of these financing regulations, and will nominate a financial expert to monitor the electoral campaign.
If the amount of money received by the party from the state budget is higher than the campaign expenses, the different has to be returned to the KQZ.
Finally, political parties are not allowed to buy screen time on television channels to transmit political ads. All television stationed are obliged to offer free advertisement space to parties participating in the elections.
