Basic principles of oversight and control of the financing of political parties, initiative groups and electoral campaigns

(1) The purpose of oversight and control of financing of political parties, initiative groups and electoral campaigns is to verify how the initiative groups, the electoral com­petitors and the participants in the referendum comply with the regulatory framework during the period in which they operate, including by checking the correctness, complete­ness of information and the time limit for submitting financial reports with the necessary annexes, within the limits of what is declared and presented by the subject.

(2) The purpose of control of the financing of the initiative groups and the electoral campaigns is to verify how the initiative groups, the electoral competitors and the partic­ipants in the referendum observe the regulatory framework during the period in which they operate, including by verifying the content of the financial reports and primary ac­counting documents, if they correspond to the conducted campaign activities and to the presentation of all the revenues and expenditures from the period of initiative groups operation and from the electoral campaign.

(3) Oversight and control of the financing of political parties, initiative groups and electoral campaigns shall be carried out at the premises of the Commission or on the spot. In the event of disagreement by the body subject to the control or by the owner (ad­ministrator) of the property where the on the spot control is to be carried out, an action shall be filed in the court to authorize the on-site financial control without the consent of the entity subject to control or the owner (administrator) of the property.

(4) The Central Electoral Commission or, where appropriate, the District Electoral Council shall approve, by decision, the results of the oversight or of the control of the funding of the initiative groups and the electoral campaigns, which shall be reflected in the report on the elections results.

(5) The control of the financing of political parties, initiative groups and electoral campaigns shall be carried out on the basis of a set of methods and shall provide organi­sation and control operations, as well as well as capitalizing on its results, such as: factual verification, documentary checks, full verification, partial verification, thematic verifica­tion, operational verification, cross-check. The results of the control shall be announced within 6 months from the moment of confirmation of the election results and can be extended if necessary.

(6) The process of planning, organisation and conduct of control of the financing of political parties, initiative groups and electoral campaigns is stipulated in regulations approved by the Central Electoral Commission.

(7) In the oversight and control process concerning the financing of political parties, initiative groups and electoral campaigns, the Central Electoral Commission may request further documents and/or additional explanations which it considers necessary and the responsible persons shall be required to submit them within the time-limits set by the Commission.

(8) Oversight and control of the financing of political parties, initiative groups and electoral campaigns may be carried out on several occasions if new circumstances attest­ing the existence of evidence of breach of the legislative framework have subsequently been detected.

(9) Repeated control of the financing of political parties, initiative groups and elec­toral campaigns may be carried out also in the context of the consideration of complaints and notifications.

(10) Repeated control of the financing of political parties, initiative groups and elec­toral campaigns shall be approved by the decision of the Central Electoral Commission.

^{[Art. 59 (1), (4) amended by Law No.1 of 18.01.2024, in force as of 25.01.2024]}