Financing of Political Parties: Perspectives of Legal Framework and Monitoring

Transparency International in Bosnia and Herzegovina (TI B&H) organized the conference “Financing of Political Parties: Perspectives of legal framework and monitoring” which was held in Sarajevo on June 27th, 2019. Upon the invitation of organizer, Civic Association “Why Not?” attended the conference as well.

In the introductory part of the conference the audience was addressed by the ambassador of OSCE mission  in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Mr. Bruce Berton who was followed by Drahoslav Stefanek.

Among all other things, ambassador Berton highlighted that OSCE, as it did in 2010 and 2014, proposed amendments on Election Law of B&H since the “trust in the election process in B&H is on the very low level”.

Chief of OSCE mission, by reminding on European Commission’s recommendations, emphasized that it is urgent to make and enforce these amendments in order to increase the transparency and to restore the trust in the election system as such.

As the focus of the Conference was centered around the improvement of Law on Financing of Political Parties, executive director of Transparency International in B&H Ivana Korajlić presented to the audience the draft proposal of the amendment on previously mentioned Law which has been assembled by the TI in collaboration with official representatives of institutions. 

Besides that, during the first panel which carried the title: “How to ensure transparent financing of political parties,” participants had the opportunity to listen to and exchange opinions and recommendations with prof. dr. Suad Arnautović who is a member of the Central Election Commission, and Lazar Prodanović who is a representative in the House of Peoples of Bosnia and Herzegovina. 

Second part of the conference beared the title “Election Campaign in B&H Monitoring – 2018 General Elections”. There Milena Mastalo (TI B&H), Dario Jovanović (“Pod lupom”, trans. “Under the Magnifier”) and Denis Čarkadžić (CA “Why Not?”) presented previous research projects of their respective organizations regarding the financing of political parties.

In the end of the Conference, participants collectively agreed that the advancement of Law on Financing of Political Parties in the upcoming period has to be one of the top priorities of following groups: legislative bodies that are in-charge of this; non-governmental sector and the B&H society as a whole, which jointly should strive to remove existing deficiencies and to embrace the highest democratic and legal standards.