State funding for parties will 'reduce oligarchic influence'

State funding for political parties must be introduced in order to reduce oligarchic influence on them, Central Election Commission (CEC) chairman Iurie Ciocan stated at a news conference that followed a roundtable dedicated to this issue. Parties will be financed from the state budget starting from 2013. Until then, says Iurie Ciocan, it is necessary to establish effective mechanisms to ensure transparency in how political parties will spend the money. “Our main mission is to simplify this system maximally so that all the actors, both political parties and independent candidates, are able to account for all incomes and expenses as accurately and transparently as possible. But as I have earlier stated, political parties in Moldova don't have problems with accounting for their spending. The root problem resides is how they can justify their incomes and the origin of these incomes”, said Iurie Ciocan. The CEC chairman has stressed that it is key to provide training to both political parties and election authorities on how to administrate these state resources. It is also important to establish clear rules for submitting periodical and thorough reports as well as to unify all the submission rules, because presently they differ at the Tax Inspectorate, at banks or at the CEC. Political parties will receive a total of 0.2% of the annual state budget, which translates to roughly 40 million lei. However, according to experts, this would only cover one-third of the expenses of just one party. The measure was adopted by Parliament in November 2009, but its entering into effect was postponed until 1 July 2013 because of the economic crisis.