Prague, July 29 (CTK) – Czech political parties should spend maximally 90 million crowns on their campaigns ahead of the general election, under a draft amendment to the election legislation the government approved on Wednesday according to CTK’s information.
Originally, 80 million crowns were proposed.
The amendments to the election laws also provide for the obligatory opening of transparent election accounts and the supervision of the parties’ financial management by an independent office.
The changed rules are to take effect in 2017, for which the next general election is scheduled.
The limit for the regional elections is to be seven million crowns per region compared with the originally proposed five million crowns.
Senate candidates should not cross the 2.5 million crowns mark, compared with the originally proposed 3.75 million crowns.
The upper limit of 50 million crowns for European Parliament elections has not been changed. The same figure applies to presidential candidates.
No limits are to be applied to the local elections and the election to Prague’s assembly.
The observance of the limits is to be controlled by a new Office for Supervision of the Financial Management of Political Parties and Political Movements.
The breach of the rules would be fined with one-and-a-half times the sum by which the limit was exceeded.
The draft amendment raises the subsidies parties receive for their general and European election costs from 15,000 to 19,000 crowns.
“The increase makes up for the inflation since the subsidy was introduced,” the report justifying the increase says.
