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Campaign Finance
We note with satisfaction that several recommendations made by IFES after the 1996 presidential elections have been reflected in the draft Federal Law. In particular, this includes:
- establishment of a period within which the Central Election Commission of the Russian Federation must allocate money to the electoral fund of a registered candidate;
- obligation of candidates to submit interim financial reports;
- prohibition of concrete forms in which candidates holding government offices may take advantage of their official position;
- prohibition of in-kind donations to candidates;
and other similar provisions.
ARTICLE 55
In the area of regulation and disclosure of political finance activity, IFES has long advocated that limitations upon contributions to candidates and electoral associations and blocs, and upon their overall campaign expenditures, should not be set unreasonably low. However well intended, severe limitations upon political giving and spending tend to stifle political action and, as evidenced from prior elections, encourage widespread, unreported «off-the-books» financial activity that wholly thwarts the law’s purposes. Compliance with legal requirements for reporting campaign receipts and disbursements by candidates and electoral associations and blocs must be strongly encouraged and enforced with graded penalties.
In our opinion, the existing limitations on the amount of donations and expenditures of a candidate are overly understated. A candidate may spend up to 500 thousand minimum wages on the election campaign, which presently comes to 41,745,000 rubles (approximately US$1.6 million). This is even less than the sum established in the 1996 presidential elections. Such low limits provoke violations of the law by candidates who seek to sway an electorate of over 100 million people over a period of over three months. 10 The cost of mounting a national election, which includes the purchase of TV airtime, are substantially higher when looking at the cost per voter in countries like France, Brazil, or Canada.
The election law should distinguish between prohibiting campaign-related activities and other, politically neutral activities. For example, the development of voter education or rights awareness activities by charitable organizations or the provision of assistance to the election apparatus should be made clearly a legal activity.
ARTICLE 57
While the definition of an anonymous donation (Subclause «l», Clause 4 of Article 55) appears on target, a distinction should be drawn between donations whose source cannot be traced, i.e., anonymous donations, and donations which have been transferred without indication of all the necessary data. This comment is consistent with the guiding principle established herein which about the increase of clarity in the obligations of participants in the electoral process.
The Clause 6 of Article 57 of the draft Federal Law is misleading as it stands. According to this clause, all kinds of paid work and all paid services directly or indirectly related to the elections may be performed/rendered only with a written consent of candidates or their authorized persons, with the payment to be made only from the corresponding electoral fund. The same clause prohibits legal entities, their branches, representative offices, and other divisions from performing work, rendering services, selling goods directly or indirectly related to the elections free of charge or at unreasonably low rates. This ban should not apply to all kinds of work related to elections that are politically neutral, such as the organization of educational programs for voters or members of election commissions or concern only the work aimed to support the activity of certain candidates, electoral associations, electoral blocs as part of on-going partnerships with like-minded foreign parties, for example.
10 See comments of Robert A. Dahl, FIND ARTICLES TO QUOTE FRIOM HIM
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