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Political Parties Spend €6-million Plus on Campaign Funding
Sunday 18 July 2010 Zoom in | Print page
Bratislava, July 18 (TASR) - Eighteen political parties running for Slovakia's parliament in the 2010 election last month spent a total of some €6,235,000 on the campaign, show the parties' preliminary reports filed with the Finance Ministry, which has published them online at www.mfsr.sk.
The ministry's website further reveals the Slovak National Party (SNS), the biggest spender, invested between the announcement of the election and the three weeks leading up to the election €1,930,000 on political publicity and advertising. The nationalists narrowly gained the 5-percent voter support needed to enter Parliament and nine seats. Donations from Viliam Kupec and Jozef Duracka (MP) represented €70,500 and €3.500, respectively.
Having borrowed €1 million in the run-up to the campaign, the fellow opposition Smer-SD garnered near-35 percent votes and was second in campaign spending on €947,000.
Ethnic Hungarian SMK was the third biggest spender, declaring €830,000, but staying out of the legislature after 12 years when it failed to cross the 5-percent threshold. Its loan was €330,000.
The governing coalition SDKU-DS, with 15-percent support, spent €771,000 – less than half of its loan of €1,660,000 for the purpose. Its partners Christian Democrats' (KDH) campaign outlay stood at €332,000 with a loan of €1 million and a financial donation of €17,000 (8.1 percent election result); Freedom and Solidarity (SaS, 12-plus percent) spent €285,000 backed up by a loan of €100,000 from its chairman and chief of parliament Richard Sulik and €192,000 in donations. Most-Hid (8.9 percent) spent €295,000, borrowing €400,000 from its chairman and founder Bela Bugar – in conjunction with businessman Jan Gencik – and €213,000 in donations.
Party of the Democratic Left (SDL) had a €236,000 campaign with €200,000 donation from senior members – without borrowing. The party just failed to make the 3-percent threshold that would have given it official party status.
Out of parliament for the first time, LS-HZDS reported €210,000 in campaign funding, without loans or donations.
Union - Party for Slovakia invested €193,000 in the campaign, featuring €196,100 in donations including €50,000 from party candidate and businessman Boris Kollar alone.
The Communists (KSS) were the last party to cross the €100,000 threshold, laying out €108,000 in campaigning spending with no loans or donations reported.
Remaining parties such as the Alliance for the Europe of Nations, European Democratic Party, Roma Coalition Party, New Democracy, Association of Slovak Workers, People's Party Our Slovakia and the one-man Paliho Kapurkova party had campaign spending below €100,000.
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