Home > 2.6 Campaign finance > UKRAINE - Joint Opinion on the Draft Amendments to the Laws on Election of People's Deputies and on the Central Election Commission and on the Draft Law on Repeat Elections of Ukraine
 
 
 
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III. Comments on the Text on the Draft Electoral Law 


E. Financing of elections


The OSCE/ODIHR final report on the 2012 parliamentary elections noted shortcomings in Ukraine’s campaign and political party finance regulations previously identified by the Council of Europe’s Group of States against Corruption (GRECO).[1] The OSCE/ODIHR final report also notes that Ukraine’s party finance regulations fall short of the standards and recommendations of the Guidelines for Political Party Registration put forward jointly by the Venice Commission and the OSCE/ODIHR. As a result, the OSCE/ODIHR final report recommended: (1) more detailed content for campaign finance disclosures; (2) greater frequency in filing of reports; (3) more equitable conditions for campaign finance; (4) more detailed regulations for sanctions and accountability; (5) clear procedures for enforcement and designation of a single body responsible for enforcement of violations; (6) the introduction of a reasonable campaign limit on spending; and (7) consideration of the introduction of public funding for political parties with a threshold level of support. The provision of Article 48.1 of the draft electoral law setting limits on campaign expenditures and new amendments on submission of provisional reports before election day and their publication on the CEC website, as well as on the possibility of issuing warnings for not respecting campaign funding rules are positive amendments. However, the need remains to address numerous recommendations aimed at improving the regulation of campaign finance.


[1] See OSCE/ODIHR Election Observation Mission Final Report on the 28 October 2012 parliamentary elections, page 18. See also GRECO “Evaluation Report on Ukraine: Transparency of Party Funding”, 21 October 2011, available at: www.coe.int/t/dghl/monitoring/greco/evaluations/round3/GrecoEval3(2011)1_Ukraine_Two_EN.pdf.