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Only 6.3 percent of Candidates Ready to Disclose Wealth More Fully
Tuesday 08 June 2010 Zoom in | Print page
Bratislava, June 8 (TASR) - Only 6.3 percent of all the candidates of the 18 political parties (each party has up to 150 candidates) running for parliamentary seats in the June 12 elections are willing to increase the disclosure of their wealth in public, Fair-play Alliance (AFP) CEO Zuzana Wienk told reporters on Tuesday in reference to a survey carried out by the organisation.
The survey is part of a project run since 2008 by AFP under the name Politika Open, and is aimed at motivating politicians to make their assets public. "This election is the fourth initiative in which we've tried to appeal to the old candidates or the completely new ones for more transparency," said Wienk.
Project guarantor Frantisek Pauliny said that none of the current ruling parties sent back completed questionnaires, but as many as 142 candidates of parliamentary hopeful Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) took part.
Participants among now-serving MPs included Daniel Lipsic (Christian Democrats/KDH), Lucia Zitnanska, Ivan Stefanec (both SDKU-DS) and Independent Laszlo Nagy (Most-Hid).
Apart from basic details, the participants were asked to fill in data about their business holdings, including Identification Organisation Numbers (ICOs), and perks relating to their jobs or posts.
According to Wienk, the project information goes far beyond the applicable conflicts of interest law and thus allows for more efficient public scrutiny. "Under the applicable law, politicians don't provide nearly any data on their assets and this information can't be checked," said Wienk.
The project is intended to get 90 lawmakers (a constitutional majority) to allow changes in the law in question, she said.
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