CIVIL calls for a decisive fight against political corruption

CIVIL – Center for Freedom demands transparency, openness and accountability from all participants in the electoral process in Republic of Macedonia.

The citizens have the right to know who finances the political parties and how!

Therefore, we call on all political parties to fully comply with the legal regulations on financing political parties and electoral campaigns, to fully adhere to all democratic standards and bear political and moral responsibility for their actions overall.

We request from the political parties to ensure openness of their financial activities, to submit regular financial reports that clearly show the sources of funding.

We demand immediate activation of the institutions in the direction of preventing withdrawal and misuse of public funds, as well as of financing political and electoral campaigns with black money.

In its analyses and reports, CIVIL has been for many years referring to the political corruption in the country, which has penetrated into all spheres of society and the system.

Bribing voters is a common occurrence in the electoral processes and it must be ended once and for all.

The funding of campaigns often rise suspicion. State institutions are obliged to provide citizens a full, clear and detailed review of these operations.

It is more than obvious that the financial control over the media is due to the connection between part of the capital and the political elites in the country.  That chain must be ended.

The misuse of public resources is a massive and obvious phenomenon that leaves a dark spot on the electoral processes. It is a vulgar and degrading state of the system and undermines the citizens’ trust in the institutions in the long term.

We demand from the State Election Commission and all other relevant institutions to decisively use their legal competencies and implement strict supervision over the financing of political parties and their campaigns in order to ensure minimum conditions for a fair electoral competition that is expected to be held in April 2016.

Transparent financing and strict supervision are key tools in the fight against political corruption and against a large number of irregularities of the electoral processes in the Republic of Macedonia.

And finally, for the purpose of overcoming the long-time political crisis and for democratization of the country, it is necessary to detach the state from the party. Depoliticization of the system has to be implemented in order to establish the rule of law and respect for human rights and freedoms, such as the right to vote, as one of the fundamental human rights.