Transparency International Croatia (TIH) on Tuesday urged leaders of political parties that are gearing up for internal party elections to regulate the financial side of their activities prior to starting campaigns.
Elections with the Social Democratic Party (SDP) have raised additional questions concerning financing political parties, TIH said in a press release, underscoring that for the sake of transparency it was important that political parties find a model under which politics would not be reserved just for the rich but for all party members.
TIH welcomed a recent initiative by one SDP member who raised the question of financing internal party elections giving the public an opportunity to debate the issue.
As the SDP is currently preparing for party elections many questions have been raised how individual candidates are financing their campaigning. Questions such as a recent barbecue that Minister Mirando Mrsic as a potential candidate in the party elections organised for 200 party colleagues that costed HRK 9,000 and whether this amount can be considered as a private donation to the party and in that light whether a letter sent by Minister Gordan Maras as a potential candidate to 6,000 addresses of party members can be considered the same.
"Other questions are do these candidates posses fiscal receipts for these amounts and did they pay Value Added Tax? These are examples and there will be many more particularly in smaller towns and at lower party levels. These examples show that in the end politics is not free of charge", TIH warns in its press release.
