Candidates disclose campaign funding more eagerly than before
Party leaders made disclosures before election
Jyrki Katainen
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Anni Sinnemäki
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Mari Kiviniemi
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Jutta Urpilainen
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Päivi Räsänen
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Paavo Arhinmäki
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Timo Soini
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Candidates in Sunday’s Parliamentary election were generally more diligent about issuing detailed reports on their campaign spending than before. Slightly more than 40 per cent of the candidates made their disclosures by the Saturday deadline. Of the 2,315 candidates in the elections, 931 made advance disclosures. In the European Union elections two years ago a third of candidates made such disclosures.
All party leaders made their advance disclosures by the deadline.
The declarations have been placed on the website of the National Audit Office of Finland. Advance notification is not mandatory. Compulsory disclosures of campaign funding are required after the elections.
One factor possibly affecting the eagerness of candidates to disclose their campaign funding is the technology which involves the internet, and uses online banking codes. Christian Democratic Party chairwoman Päivi Räsänen, among others, has said that making the declaration is difficult.
Jaakko Hamunen of the State Audit Office said on Saturday that in addition to the Internet, candidates have had the option of making a paper declaration. Therefore, he does not believe that problems in learning the new technology would have reduced people’s willingness to make disclosures.
“It is hard to see how the number of disclosures would have depended on the channels available”, Hamunen said.
According to Hamunen, there have been some problems in submitting declarations of campaign spending if someone else, such as a candidate’s campaign manager, has tried to sign into the system with his or her own banking information in order to submit a report on behalf of a candidate.
The advance disclosures show that party leaders have contributed sharply varying amounts of money to their own campaigns.
Centre Party chairwoman Mari Kiviniemi says that she has received EUR 35,995 in support from her party, while spending ERU 3,500 of her own money, which she has contributed to the party’s campaign. She got EUR 2,000 from corporate sponsors and EUR 3,655 from private donors.
By contrast, Green League chairwoman Anni Sinnemäki, who put EUR 41,000 of her own money into her campaign fund. She says that she got just EUR 412 from her party and EUR 1,527 from private donors.
The EUR 30,000 campaign chest of Social Democratic Party chairwoman Jutta Urpilainen consists of EUR 10,000 of her own money and EUR 20,000 that she got from her party.
The Left Alliance leader Paavo Arhinmäki put up EUR 10,000 of his EUR 32,000 himself. The biggest outside support, EUR 10,000, came from party organizations. Private individuals supported Arhinmäki to the tune of EUR 3,000 and other donations totaled EUR 9,000.
Christian Democratic Party chairwoman Päivi Räsänen spent just over EUR 18,000 on her campaign, including EUR 5,011 from her own pocket, in addition to EUR 5,153 from the party. Räsänen got donations totaling EUR.
True Finns leader Timo Soini says that he received EUR 10,000 from his party, while contributing EUR 2,000 of his own money.
The Swedish People’s Party’s Sefan Wallin says that he got EUR 37,450 for his campaign. He got EUR 16,000 from his own party, in addition to EUR 15,000 of the net revenues from a seminar held in Turku in January. Private donations amounted to EUR 2,700. Two companies, the Raisio Group and the dairy products manufacturer Valio, contributed a combined EUR 2,250.
National Coalition Party chairman Jyrki Katainen got EUR 50,000 his party.
Helsingin Sanomat
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| 18.4.2011 - TODAY |
 Candidates disclose campaign funding more eagerly than before |
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