Politicians haven't kept the promise that they made a year ago to propose measures aimed at a more transparent way of financing political parties and to toughen up the supervision of inner-party activities, Gabriel Sipos of Transparency International Slovensko (TIS) told journalists on Thursday. Eight political parties voiced their support for an initiative to strengthen the transparency of their financing in their manifestos prior to the March 2012 general election, setting one year as the deadline for submitting related proposals to Parliament. Among the parties that either signed or expressed their support for such an initiative were the governing Smer-SD; the opposition Ordinary People (OLaNO), SDKU-DS, Most-Hid and Freedom and Solidarity (SaS); and the non-parliamentary Hungarian Community Party (SMK).
“For me, this has once again confirmed that politicians aren't completely equal with everyone else. They are in a sense above the law,” complained Sipos, who went on to say that while ordinary people are duly sanctioned when they are found to have failed to carry out their obligations in accordance with what they have vowed to do or have signed in documents, politicians easily escape any such penalty. “A politician deliberately pledges to do something and then claims after a year that they were unable to do it for some or other reason, and that's it,” said Sipos. Only Independent MPs Daniel Lipšic and Jana Žitňanská (both former Christian Democrats/KDH, now members of the newly emerged New Majority/NOVA party) have kept the promise to a certain extent. The two submitted to Parliament a legislative proposal in November 2012 that involved certain measures aimed at the more transparent funding for political parties. Although the proposal garnered the support of OLaNO MPs, it wasn't approved by Parliament.
Christopher George
