Our View: With elections looming we need transparency in campaign funding

Finance minister Constantinos Petrides ruled out the idea of providing political parties with additional state funds for their presidential election campaigns. This was out of the question, he said, mentioning how the government had increased the assistance to the parties by adding the extraordinary funding for elections. Since 2021, a total of €11.2 million of the state budget is allocated to the parliamentary parties, and the minister saw no reason for more.

The matter reportedly had been raised by Edek leader Marinos Sizopoulos at a meeting of the national council a few weeks ago. When it was reported it sparked a reaction from independent presidential candidates, who are not entitled to any state assistance.

“€12 million to the parties, not enough,” asked Achilleas Demetriades.

“The four candidates of the party establishment are given a few millions by the Cypriot taxpayer to stage expensive election campaigns,” said Giorgos Colocassides.

Former UCy rector, Constantinos Christofides, was even more scathing. “They have the millions that are given to the parties, they control the media, abundant funding from different sources, from oligarchs. And they want more. For the true independents not even a euro.”

He had a point, but then again the taxpayer cannot fund the fantasy of every person that decides to stand in the presidential elections. We might end up with a thousand independent candidates, standing just for the state assistance. This definitely places legitimate independent candidates, like the above-mentioned, at a disadvantage against the party candidates but there is nothing that can be done.

What we have not heard the independent candidates calling for – and they should be doing so – is transparency in campaign funding. Every candidate could prepare accounts on campaign spending, but that does not qualify as transparency. Voters have a right to know who the campaign donors of each candidate are, but this has never happened in Cyprus. Political parties have stridently refused to pass legislation to this effect, claiming that disclosure would discourage party donations. This would suggest that there are strings attached to party contributions by business or individuals.

Transparency is even more important in presidential elections, given the power a president enjoys. Should voters not be made aware if a big developer or company that bids for public contracts has contributed funds to the election campaign of a candidate? This would be an effective way of battling the corruption that all our politicians, from the president down, supposedly want to tackle.

Transparency of campaign funding would be a real step in the fight against corruption, much more effective than setting up anti-corruption authorities with no powers.