Left Alliance had secretive campaign funding organisation of its own
Ohjelmatyö group backed campaigns by more than EUR 100,000
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The opposition Left Alliance also has a secretive organisation which it has used to provide election campaign funding to party candidates. Ohjelmatyö ry provided more than EUR 100,000 for the campaigns of about 50 party candidates.
The association’s chair Tanja Vihersaari would not say which candidates were offered funding, and on what basis.
“It is the candidates’ own business to say if they got support. Minutes have naturally been kept on decisions, but we have not decided to make them public”, Vihersaari says.
The reasons for granting subsidies are unclear for most Left Alliance Parliamentarians. Speculation is that a close relationship with labour unions, or a positive view of the European Union are key factors in getting money from the organisation.
Previously, only MP Matti Kangas, as well as Left Alliance party secretary Sirpa Puhakka, who failed to win a seat in Parliament last year, had reported receiving funding from Ohjelmatyö.
More recently it has come out that money has also gone to Martti Korhonen, Claes Andersson, Minna Sirniö, Erkki Virtanen, as well as Kari Uotila, who fell short of getting elected.
The selective nature of the funding has raised some criticism in the Parliamentary group of the Left Alliance; the chandelling of the funding to the best-known politicians has been seen as unfair.
Ohjelmatyö ry is a relatively unknown entity within the Left Alliance. Some of the party’s MPs had never heard about it until this spring.
The association’s origins go back to the late 1950s. Originally, it focused, as its name (“programme work”) suggests, on organising programmes at party events.
Ohjelmatyö only took on its present task of providing funding for election campaigns in the present decade.
Helsingin Sanomat
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| 5.6.2008 - TODAY |
 Left Alliance had secretive campaign funding organisation of its own |
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