NGO RELEASES PRELIMINARY

UNCLAS BELGRADE 000234

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV KDEM PREL SR
SUBJECT: NGO RELEASES PRELIMINARY
FINDINGS ON PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS'
CAMPAIGN FINANCING

SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED, PLEASE
HANDLE ACCORDINGLY.


1. (SBU) Summary: Transparency Serbia's
(TS) preliminary findings on political
parties' campaign finance reports have
raised concerns about the effectiveness
of oversight by government bodies.
Parties almost certainly spent more
money on campaigns than they reported
to oversight bodies, suggesting
substantial under-the-table donations.
End summary.


2. (U) On February 9, Transparency
Serbia (TS) held a brief press
conference presenting preliminary
information and highlighting concerns
about parliamentary election campaign
financing. An estimated audience of
twenty, comprised mostly of journalists
and representatives of the diplomatic
corps, listened to remarks by TS
President Vladimir Goati and Program
Director Nemanja Nenadic, followed by a
brief Q&A.


3. (U) The press conference focused on
presentation of preliminary data on
parties' election campaigns and a call
of action for greater oversight by
state organs such as the Republic
Election Commission (REC),Republic
Broadcasting Agency (RBA) and the
Ministry of Finance. After parties
claimed they were unable to submit
their campaign finances to the GOS by
the original deadline of Jan 31, the
deadline was extended to Feb 18. As
expected, TV advertising expenditures
generally topped party campaign budgets
(compared with print and billboard
advertising),with G17+, LDP and DS
spending the most for commercial spots.
Print advertising expenditures were
highest among DSS, DS and SRS, while
the highest billboard expenditures came
from DS, SRS and DSS.


4. (U) From their preliminary analysis,
TS asserted that unregistered donations

SIPDIS
made to political parties were their
biggest concern from the Jan 21
parliamentary elections. Data collected
thus far shows expenditures in
campaigns were extremely high, yet TS
claims state organs such as the REC and
RBA chose not to investigate
suspiciously high spending. TS called
on the REC to conduct tighter
monitoring of campaign finances, move
against those with irregularities and
publish parties' financial reports. TS
also highlighted concern about the
RBA's reluctance to ensure broadcasters
are offering equal advertising costs to
all prospective buyers. TS urged
journalists to investigate the lack of
price lists by media companies, which
have made it extremely difficult to
assess actual costs spent by parties,
and to publicize their findings. TS
also called for greater enforcement of
the new Serbian constitution's Article
10, which requires assets unspent in
election campaigns to be refunded to
the state budget within the time
allotted.


5. (SBU) A report in the Feb 20 edition
of local daily Blic would seem to
substantiate TS predictions by
reporting that parliamentary parties
have spent much more than entitled to
by law and by what they reported to the
REC. According to the unsourced Blic
article, parties spent an average twice
what was reported to the REC. Spending
by DS led the way, but virtually all
major parties were identified as being
over-spenders (exceptions being LDP and


SPS).


6. (SBU) Comment: It is difficult at
this early stage to determine if abuse
of campaign finances had a significant
impact on election results. G17+, for
example, is widely believed to have put
substantial sums into a slick marathon
campaign - even eliciting services of
US campaign consulting guru, Greenberg
Research. Yet with the exception of the
LDP coalition, all of the democratic
bloc parties underperformed compared to
their expectations, so this was perhaps
money not well spent. The lack of
oversight or aggressive enforcement
cited by TS is symptomatic of Serbia's
relatively young, undeveloped
democratic institutions. While
corruption remains a problem in Serbia,
this particular facet will likely be
contained as democratic institutions
mature.

POLT