Transparency Serbia scrutinizes campaign spending

Political parties spent much more money than they had at their disposal in the election campaign. This is according to Transparency Serbia’s monitoring of the election campaign financing. Transparency Serbia scrutinizes campaign spending Transparency Serbia Program Director Nemanja Nenadic says that there is an “obvious gap” between reported revenues and donations and expenditures, even if the parties managed to get a 50 percent discount for TV commercials. “There is a possibility that the parties had lots of small donations that they do not need to report, which is not very likely. Maybe the parties had some leftover funds from before, which is even less likely. Only loans are left then,” he noted and added that there were numerous questions that needed to be answered. Nenadic pointed out that it mattered how and under what conditions the parties took out loans and how they were going to pay them back because it opened a possibility to influence those who made political decisions. He stated that the parties had maybe assessed their election results in advance and counted on the money they received based on the presumed number of seats in parliament. “But can you know in advance how many MPs somebody will get? If you could, we would not go to the polls,” Nenadic explained. According to preliminary and partial results of Transparency Serbia, United Regions of Serbia (URS) spent the largest amount of money on TV commercials, RSD 620mn, followed by Democratic Party (DS)-led coalition (RSD 425mn), Serbian Progressive Party (SNS)-led coalition (around RSD 210mn), U-Turn Movement (RSD 196.5mn), Serb Radical Party (RSD 53.6mn), Movement of Workers and Farmers (RSD 57.8mn) and Democratic Party of Serbia (around RSD 40mn). More money was spent on anti-campaigns than on TV advertizing in local and provincial elections in Vojvodina combined. Almost three times more money was spent on TV advertizing in the general May 6 elections than in the previous parliamentary elections. The biggest amount of money on presidential campaign TV ads was spent by the DS-led coalition – RSD 338mn. The U-Turn Movement spent around RSD 166mn, Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS)-led coalition spent RSD 151mn and the SNS-led coalition spent around RSD 71mn. Transparency Serbia published the assessment based on official prices of TV commercials of AGB Nielsen. The report covers Radio Television of Serbia 1 and 2, Prva TV, Pink TV, B92, Studio B, Avala, B92 Info, Happy TV and RTV1. The monitoring started on March 26 and covered Belgrade, Nis, Novi Sad, Kragujevac and another 20 towns and municipalities. The URS has requested from Transparency Serbia to once again check how many campaign videos every electoral list and presidential candidate had on national TV stations and truthfully inform the public. The URS claims that the party and its presidential candidate had far less videos on national TV stations than DS- and SNS-led coalitions. The news conference in Belgrade on Friday (Tanjug) Beta

Transparency Serbia scrutinizes campaign spending

Transparency Serbia Program Director Nemanja Nenadić says that there is an “obvious gap” between reported revenues and donations and expenditures, even if the parties managed to get a 50 percent discount for TV commercials.

“There is a possibility that the parties had lots of small donations that they do not need to report, which is not very likely. Maybe the parties had some leftover funds from before, which is even less likely. Only loans are left then,” he noted and added that there were numerous questions that needed to be answered.

Nenadić pointed out that it mattered how and under what conditions the parties took out loans and how they were going to pay them back because it opened a possibility to influence those who made political decisions.

He stated that the parties had maybe assessed their election results in advance and counted on the money they received based on the presumed number of seats in parliament.

“But can you know in advance how many MPs somebody will get? If you could, we would not go to the polls,” Nenadić explained.

According to preliminary and partial results of Transparency Serbia, United Regions of Serbia (URS) spent the largest amount of money on TV commercials, RSD 620mn, followed by Democratic Party (DS)-led coalition (RSD 425mn), Serbian Progressive Party (SNS)-led coalition (around RSD 210mn), U-Turn Movement (RSD 196.5mn), Serb Radical Party (RSD 53.6mn), Movement of Workers and Farmers (RSD 57.8mn) and Democratic Party of Serbia (around RSD 40mn).

More money was spent on anti-campaigns than on TV advertizing in local and provincial elections in Vojvodina combined. Almost three times more money was spent on TV advertizing in the general May 6 elections than in the previous parliamentary elections.

The biggest amount of money on presidential campaign TV ads was spent by the DS-led coalition – RSD 338mn. The U-Turn Movement spent around RSD 166mn, Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS)-led coalition spent RSD 151mn and the SNS-led coalition spent around RSD 71mn.

Transparency Serbia published the assessment based on official prices of TV commercials of AGB Nielsen. The report covers Radio Television of Serbia 1 and 2, Prva TV, Pink TV, B92, Studio B, Avala, B92 Info, Happy TV and RTV1. The monitoring started on March 26 and covered Belgrade, Niš, Novi Sad, Kragujevac and another 20 towns and municipalities.

The URS has requested from Transparency Serbia to once again check how many campaign videos every electoral list and presidential candidate had on national TV stations and truthfully inform the public.

The URS claims that the party and its presidential candidate had far less videos on national TV stations than DS- and SNS-led coalitions.