Political parties clash on party financing

In the first official live web stream, the Parliamentary committee for the re-codification and consolidation of laws discussed the financing and registration of political parties.

The discussion was based on the draft law on party financing authored by Nationalist MP Franco Debono. The bill is to be discussed shortly in Parliament.

Representatives of all three established parties, the Nationalist Party, the Labour Party and Alternattiva Demokratika, together with a number of MPs and former politicians discussed whether political parties should be regulated and how this should be done.

Othwer guests were PN Peter Darmanin, NGO Commissioner Kenneth Wain, former PN minister Michael Falzon and lawyer and former PN candidate George Sapiano. 

The committee's chairperson Franco Debono described the meeting as "historical" for being the first to be streamed live and for discussing the regulation of political parties after a long absence of this matter from public debate.

Debono explained that these matters have not been discussed since the 1995 Galdes Report which ended in failure after the political parties could not come to an agreement on electoral reform.

Alternattiva Demokratika chairperson Michael Briguglio explained that his party has made concrete proposals about party financing and listed a number of hem. These include regulations that donations of 5000 or more should be made public and donations exceeding 40,000 should be made illegal.

Briguglio added that the accounts of all parties should be approved by the Auditor General and that limited liability companies that belong to political parties should submit their accounts to the Malta Financial Services Authority.

On imposing a cap on spending by candidates, Debono said that a candidate receiving a donation should be obliged to inform his party. He added that seemingly cross-party agreement exists on the need to increase the current ceiling to ensure that the law does not prohibit anyone who does not have the resources to contest elections.

Another Green Party representative, Carmel Cacopardo said Debono's draft law does not exclude anonymous donations. Cacopardo said anonymous donations should be banned because they are a threat to democracy.  

This proposal was shot down by a number of MPs and representatives from other parties. Debono, Labour MPs Jose Herrera and Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca and former PN treasurer argued that anonymous donations should not be made illegal because it would deny them their right of association and

However Cacopardo explained that anonymous donations should not be made public but registered, because it could lead to abuse, with one anonymous donator making a number of donations which would exceed the legal limits of donations. He also notred that while the draft bill caps spending made by individual candidates it does not impose a spending cap on political parties.

Surprisingly, Darmanin also argued against large donations because they present a danger to democracy and an opportunity for blackmail. 

Debono said the draft bill prohibits donations over €50,000 from the same source made in the same year.

Wain said that a distinction should be made between donations and fund-raising. He explained that at present, political parties are not subject to the laws on public fund-raising and argued that a new law on party financing should extend accountability to fund-raising by political parties.

At one point, former Labour secretary-general Jason Micallef asked whether the runnings costs of the parties, in their day to day running over a legislature, were taken into consideration when the bill was being drafted. Debono said the law should not be customized to the bills of the political parties.

Labour CEO James Piscopo said the PL was the only party which published detailed accounts and noted that it was comfortable with the accounting requirements which the draft law suggested. Nationalist MP Francis Zammit Dimech accused Piscopo of resorting to propaganda and shed doubts on Labour's claims of transparency.

As the meeting came to an end, Debono suggested reconvening the meeting in two weeks time, to hold one last meeting before Parliament's summer recess. The committee will be meeting on 2 July.