TRANSPARENCY SERBIA 26 APRIL Monitoring of election campaign financing

About project Transparency – Serbia, as part of the project“Monitoring of election campaign“ monitors important aspects of political subjects’ and state organs’ activities during campaign for parliamentary, provincial, local and presidential elections in 2012 Monitoring begun on March 26 th Monitoring sample includes activities in Belgrade, Niš, Novi Sad, Kragujevac and 20 smaller cities and municipalities Мониторинг такође обухвата медије са националном дистрибуцијом и поступање јавних институција широм земље Implemented as part of the project of Transparency Serbia “Monitoring of election campaign financing” supported by International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) and USAID. Stated views do not necessarily represent donor’s opinion. International research project „CRINIS - Western Balkans – Shining a light on money in politics“

Handling of state organs and of other public institutions

Anticorruption Agency Anticorruption Agency started monitoring of election activities – higher chances that possible misdemeanors are to be spotted timely In two of the cases Agency used authorizations to ask for data on financing of certain activities – visit of Djuliani to SNS, visit of Tadić to Hanover/ data on other types of control by this organ were not published. Are these cases the only suspicious? There are no new opinions on Law implementation although there are a lot of things that create concerns Agency collected annual financial reports, publishing awaits – potentially significant data for campaign financing and further analysis Will the procedures be initiated during the campaign?

Republic Broadcasting Agency Republic Broadcasting Agency published new obligatory instruction for broadcasters – organizing mater of „paid media terms“. Most significant provisions: Limiting of «paid media terms» If the elections are called only for certain area of territory of the Republic of Serbia (e.g. city or municipality), election program can be broadcasted only by broadcaster of local or regional level whose wanted broadcasting zone comprehends areas with announced elections. – What does it mean in the context of current election campaign for the territory of Serbia? All radio and TV stations can publish election commercials under equal commercial and technical conditions, without discrimination. Press release 9 April: Analyzing possible reasons of this phenomenon Council considered complaints that prices of advertisements on stations with national coverage are extremely high. Council recommends to all electronic media to take care not to disable one part of election participants to rent advertising space in national resource available for use. Republic Election Commission undertook measures for preventing of wasting assets for work of election committees

Republic Election Commisssion First time published data on composition of permanent electoral committees Decisions of REC prevented spending of large amounts of money for monitoring elections abroad How many list submitters and candidate proposers will use the opportunity for appointing members of electoral committees in extended composition on state expense?  Income from monitors is financially significant for smaller parties and manner of attracting voters – 34 million of RSD for 8,5 thousand members and 8,5 thousand of their deputies – 17 thousand „safe votes“ would enable exceeding of census to minority party and would bring one mandate to every other

Example for composition of electoral committees – 49 electoral places in Smederevska Palanka ZESSRSURSNAPDSS SPS- JS LDPNSPGMPUPSSPS OG 1 President - REC Deputies – MUN Member+ Deputy member – REC Member+ Deputy member – MUN Total

Ministry of Finance and local authorities for financing The funds for the presidential elections and control of the electoral process provided from the budget reserve that was previously transferred money from other items No announcement of MF regarding potentially contentious provisions in the Act Allocations in the budgets of local governments for the campaign are largely determined incorrectly, which can lead to arbitrariness in the distribution and the regularity of the electoral process to challenge or unlawful expenditure of city and municipal budgets - just some of the municipalities responded to the letter from TS Collection of electoral guarantees - data on whether the guarantee is accepted and what was submitted as a guarantee are not published

The behavior of other public institutions in the campaign Increased promotional activism by public officials at all levels Contentious situations: - activities not related to the responsibilities of officials - The campaign takes place during working hours - Merger of state and party travel - Participation of non-government officials in state promotional activities - Financing activities from the popular budget - Employment in public institutions and providing financial incentives Advertising the local government and public enterprises on the progress made and plans Пример: цитат из плаћеног текста у Сомборским новинама  In We predicted that, as the City Council, together with the Provincial Secretariat for Labour, Employment and Gender Equality, isolate 10 million dinars for personal assistants and Gerontology - said Mayor Nemanja Delic

Main features of the campaign Campaign started before the announcement of elections - billboards - the question of accounting expenditures that are de facto campaign Advertising on TV and radio stations was less pronounced due to new regulations, advertising on the Internet much more than before the opening of new issues: advertising in foreign media, that some internet sites are Campaigns are usually related to different types of elections - in which the election campaign expenditures are to be accounted Posters with unmarked advertiser - antikampanje put it on the illegal sites and the removal of the utilities in some cities

Main features of the campaign - billboards In the fourth week of follow-up billboards with political content make up about 70 percent of available surface Certain number of new billboard - places appears; number of billboards in reality deviates from the data on licenses issued by the competent local authorities

Share of political billboards - Belgrade

Share of certain lists in billboards - Belgrade

Estimation of billboard campaign value – Novi Sad Novi Sad billboards ListEstimation of price with discount in EUR URS24, SRS4, SPS1, SNS28, RV5, LSV27, P16, DS24, DSS33, Total165,874.00

Structure by type of elections – Novi Sad

Share in billboard campaign – Novi Sad

Estimation of billboard campaign price - Belgrade List No. billboards Price No. of rolling billboards PricePrinting Printing of reducingcity lightPrice Total sample Estimatio n complete city Estimation with discount DS43157, ,06415,0857,543342,61890,476199,047159,238 PREOKRET27336, ,8969,5554, ,899118,57794,861 SNS42956, ,85615,0157,508161,23283,405183,490146,792 DSS29138,660297,19210,1855, ,944112,07789,661 URS33644, ,37611,7605, ,892144,961115,969 SPS10213,575215,2083,5701,785262,00222,57049,65439,723 SRS415,46061,4881, ,66516,86313,490 DVERI344,501001, ,09611,2108,968 SDPS101, ,5033,3072,645 SVM Total 1,950258, ,08068,25034,125765,852381,870840,113672,090

Gatherings and proportions Street promotions and press conferences without huge financial expenses (distribution of promotional material) In certain cases noticed connection between public officials with promotional events Still not many large gatherings in open that presume significant expenses (renting of halls, renting of busses for transportation of participants) In certain cases public gatherings were accompanied by engaging entertainers

Share in public gatherings in sample

Reported public gatherings on a sample Political subjectNumber of reported gatherings from the day of calling for elections till todaySample cities and municipalities Socijaldemokratska partija Srbije16 Sremska Mitrovica Bor Gnjilane Kikinda Subotica Krusevac Sabac Mali Zvornik Vladimirci Koceljeva Ljubovija Krupanj Bogatic Loznica Smederevo Smederevska palanka Velika Plana Pozarevac Veliko Gradiiste Uzice Pozega Cajetina Arilje Bajina Basta Kosjeric Petrovac na Mlavi Kucevo Golubac Malo Crnice Zabare Zagubica Pancevo Alibunar Bela Crkva Vrsac Kovacica Kovin Opovo Plandiste Vranje Presevo Bujanovac Vladicin Han Surdulica Bosilegrad Trgoviste Zrenjanin Komunisticka partija4 Dveri za zivot Srbije30 Preokret32 Demokratska stranka - Liga socijaldemokrata Vojvodine 60 SNS - NS - PSS - PS35 Pokret za Homolje2 SPS - PUPS - JS20 Ujedinjeni regioni Srbije18 IT inicijativa - Smederevo1 Demokratska stranka Srbije13 Socijaldemokratski savez1 Pokret ya promene Branislav Katancevic - Krusevac 13 Srpska radikalna stranka10 Pokret radnika I seljaka3 Savez vojvodjanskih madjara1 Demokratska unija doline - Presevo 1 Parija za demokratsko delovanje - Presevo1 Demokratska unija Albanaca - Presevo1 Reformisticka stranka Nis1 ГГ za bolju Radjevinu - Krupanj 1 Total26447

Assets collected by the political parties There was a large increase in reporting these types of income generally in relation to the previous off-year elections. In relation to a report of three weeks ago there was a large increase in donations from legal entities and entrepreneurs Some of the parties that do not report large donations may have no need to collect such donations because they have a very large income from the budget in relation to the campaign carried out (e.g. SRS and SDU) It is indicative that some parties publishing a number of donations, and now it does not, which probably indicates a disregard of legal obligations (e.g. SNS and G17) Coalitions either have no specific sites or they do not disclose large donations received as true for citizens' groups and new actors in the political arena