New legislation introduces membership limits to political parties

Political parties will have limits regulating the minimum number of their members, as Parliament approved the amendment to the Act on Political Parties, sponsored by the junior coalition Slovak National Party (SNS) on Tuesday. Under the new change, if there are 150 candidates on its slate, a party must have at least 300 members. Another novelty is that the name of the political party or its abbreviation must not contain the name of an individual who is either a statutory body or preparation committee member. Political parties will be only allowed to accept financial gifts under €300,000 from a single donor within one year. Also, founding party members whose political party is disbanded by courts, will be banned for five years from serving as "a member of preparation committee for any other political party, statutory body or a member of statutory body; member of the top, executive, arbitral and supervisory body of any other political party", on pain of a €3,500 fine if they don't comply.