The bill deals with the issue only in form, but not in substance, so we hope that by next reading the government will have improved it with the participation of all political parties, TIH president Zorislav Antun Petrovic said recently at a press conference.
Petrovic said that the funding of political parties was one of the crucial issues in combating corruption in politics.
TIH also cited as a shortcoming of the present bill the absence of a provision explicitly saying that voluntary financial contributions should be paid solely into a political party's central account, which would significantly facilitate supervision and remove any doubt of fraud.
Earlier in November, TIH commissioned a public opinion survey, which showed that 53.8 per cent of the 1,300 respondents believed that election campaigns left the greatest room for irregularities.
As many as 91.5 per cent of those interviewed said that business enterprises that had not settled all their liabilities should not be allowed to donate funds for election campaigns, and 87.3 per cent did not approve of political parties receiving donations from state-run companies.
Slightly over two thirds of the respondents believed that foreign-owned companies should be banned from donating funds during election campaigns.