Vanhanen: Campaign finance law changes possible before municipal election

National Coalition Party has doubts, opposition Social Democrats in favour

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Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen (Centre) believes that it is possible to tighten the law on campaign financing already before the municipal elections this autumn.
      Responding to an opposition question raised during Parliamentary question time on Thursday, the Prime Minister said that Parliament could pass the law in the first two weeks of September, if a working group preparing the bill gets its work done in the summer. This would mean that the law could take effect before the deadline for announcing candidates in the local elections in mid-September.
      Vanhanen told journalists that he had discussed the schedule with Minister of Justice Tuija Brax (Green).
      Vanhanen does not see the matter as a partisan issue between government and opposition. The Prime Minister said that he has noticed that Members of Parliament of both parties of the left, the Social Democrats and the Left Alliance, have given additional information on the sources of their campaign funding in last year’s general elections.
      “The same unlawful practice has taken place in at least these two opposition parties”, he pointed out.
     
The opposition, particularly the Social Democrats, urged the government to reform the law already before the October municipal elections. The SDP, the Left Alliance, the Christian Democrats, and the True Finns met on Thursday.
      “We demand that the government reform legislation on a very fast schedule, so that these problems might be dispensed with. We require that the government should give its proposal, and that it should be passed already before the municipal elections”, said SDP chairman Eero Heinäluoma.
     
According to Heinäluoma, the opposition will take part in a meeting convened by the Prime Minister on Friday.
      “At that time we will make it clear that the problems do not apply to all Members of Parliament, and that there are considerable differences between different groups. Unfortunately, a very large proportion of the problems are within the government.”
      Heinäluoma needled the government further, saying that it does not listen to the opposition on questions of university reform, municipal reform, or social welfare reform, but when things get difficult for the government, the opposition is invited to “come and fix the government’s mistakes.”
     
The Social Democrats are calling for a ceiling of EUR 3,000 for donations for the campaign of any single candidate, and for mandatory disclosure of all donations above EUR 1,000.
      Chairman Heinäluoma said that such a limit would put candidates on a more equal footing, and would prevent campaign budgets from growing excessively.
      The SDP also wants to impose punishments on both donors and candidates for violating the rules.
     
The Parliamentary group of the National Coalition Party held an intense discussion on the issue at its meeting on Thursday. Many of the conservative party’s MPs suspected that it would not be possible to achieve functioning legislation under the schedule proposed by the opposition.
      However, the party does not want to be an obstacle to fast movement on the issue.
      The group also pondered how the debate could be removed from the government-opposition setup, where it says the SDP has pushed it.
      One proposal was that something should be done about the rights of labour unions to use revenue from membership dues, which are tax deductible for union members, for supporting candidates in elections.
     
The party’s chairman, Minister of Finance Jyrki Katainen, expressed doubt that the changes could be implemented from a technical point of view.
      “The law should be ready months before the elections, and Parliament will not return from its summer break before September”, Katainen pointed out.
      Commenting on calls from the Social Democrats for a ceiling of EUR 3,000 for political donations, Katainen said that it is more important to know who has donated, and how much, rather than how large the donations are.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Prime Minister warns of political crisis stemming from election campaign money affair (21.5.2008)
  Business organisations rarely give companies guidance on political contributions (19.5.2008)
  Majority of political contributions by enterprises go to male candidates and large political parties (22.5.2008)
  Election financiers (18.5.2008)
  Centre Party MṔs comments spark campaign finance row (15.5.2008)

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