The draft amendments clarify, in Article 12 para 5, that “work performed by volunteers, including through the use of personal property by them (except for transport means and immovable property), as well as the appropriate expenditures compensated to the political party and the members thereof for participation in training, re-training, conferences, seminars and other similar events shall not be deemed to be donations." The clarification that financial support used for training and educational events is not to be considered a donation is welcome. However, the blanket exclusion of volunteer work from the definition of donation could create a loophole to circumvent donation limits and the prohibition of donations by legal persons. Services which are part of the volunteer’s regular line of business and for which he or she would normally be expected to be paid for had the service been provided to other clients should be counted as an in-kind donation, at least when provided regularly during working hours. In-kind donations may be defined as “all gifts, services, or property provided free of charge or accounted for at a price below market value”.³⁶ In-kind donations in the form of professional assistance as specified above should be subject to the same restrictions as financial donations if in excess of a certain market value to be defined by the law.³⁷ For that purpose, the monetary value of in-kind donations should be determined based on market price and should be listed in funding reports. It is recommended for the law to be amended accordingly.

³⁶ OSCE/ODIHR Handbook for the Observation of Campaign Finance (2015) p 20.
³⁷ The Guidelines on Political Party Regulation para 170 state “Funding of political parties is a form of political participation, and it is appropriate for parties to seek private financial contributions. In fact, legislation should require that all political parties be financed, at least in part, through private means as an expression of minimum support. With the exception of sources of funding that are banned by relevant legislation, all individuals should have the right to freely express their support for a political party of their choice through financial and in-kind contributions. However, reasonable limits on the total amount of contributions may be imposed.”