Kosovo’s parliament on Wednesday approved the Draft Law on Financing of Political Entities, with 63 votes in favour, none against and no abstentions.

One of the goals is to increase the transparency of political parties in the way they manage and spend public money during election campaigns.

“One of the main objectives that is expected with the entry into force of this law is to increase transparency and accountability of political entities in the management and spending of public money which is spent during the financing of campaigns … before, during and after elections,” says the explanatory memorandum of the draft law.

It is further stated that the law will strengthen the controls of competent institutions over political parties. 

Before the draft law was backed in principle by MPs, representatives of civil society organized a press conference, stressing the importance of changing the law.

Non-governmental organizations demanded adoption of a law “which opens the wallets of political parties” to scrutiny.

According to them, the new draft law largely addresses their concerns about the lack of financial transparency of political parties.

“Knowing the many failures and delays in the selection of auditors by the Assembly, through this draft law the competence for the selection of auditors is transferred to the Office for Political Party Registration and Certification, which is provided with a high level of functional independence and budget,” noted Eugen Cakolli, from the Democratic Institute of Kosovo, KDI.

Also, Cakolli said, the draft law defines and limits the contributions that political parties can receive, as well as the sanctions they face in case of violations.

“We, civil society organizations, consider that any further delay of this draft law is unreasonable, and damages the integrity of political parties and the public’s trust in them,” Cakolli said.

The group of non-governmental organizations requesting the adoption of the law are: the Kosova Democratic Institute/Transparency International Kosova, KDI, Democracy Plus, D+, Democracy for Development, D4D, FOL Movement, and Çohu Organization/Preportr.

This is the third time this draft has gone through the legislative procedure in parliament. 

Two previous drafts brought before parliament by earlier governments did not go through to a final reading because of the short life of the governments concerned. 

Under PM Ramush Haradinaj’s government, civil society suspended its participation in the ad hoc parliamentary commission, due to dissatisfaction with the proposed amendments.