Cyprus Mail 7 August 2021 - by Cyprus Mail Our View
Nobody should be surprised about the shenanigans surrounding the state funding of the political parties. It was all the doing of the parties, with the government condoning their decision to the share-out of the annual subsidy worth in the region of €7 million at the start of the year. The government budget stipulated that 50 per cent of this amount would be paid at the start of the year and the rest after the elections, but the parties removed the provisions, taking all the money in one go.
The money is distributed in accordance with the electoral strength of the parties, which, superficially, seems a rational arrangement. It was irrational, however, to give out all the money for 2021 at the start of the year, when parliamentary elections, which could have changed the electoral strength on which the funding is based, were scheduled for May. Did nobody at the finance ministry not oppose the change of the 50 per cent provision by the parties? Perhaps it was too much to expect the parties to act responsibly as they all wanted the funding upfront in order to pay for their campaigning. It would have been no surprise if they had actually put pressure on the government to pay up the full amount at the beginning of the year.
The root of the problem, however, was a rather devious move by the parties after the 2016 parliamentary elections. At the time, the practice was to give an additional €2.5 million during an election year, a proportion of which could go to parties entering the House for the first time. From 2018, after a decision of the parties, which the government endorsed, the additional €2.5 million for elections, was included in the total subsidy of the parties every year.
Therefore, now, there is no money left for the new entrant to parliament, Dipa that, given the practice inaugurated in 2016, when some €800,000 was shared among three parties entering the House for the first time, believes it is entitled to more than €300,000. Ironically, the money went to parties like Solidarity which won no seats and Citizens’ Alliance, which did not even stand in the election, its few candidates being on the EDEK ticket. Money should be returned and re-distributed according to the electoral strengths of 2021, but the deputy attorney-general, in an opinion he issued, said that this was unenforceable.
Scandalously, there is now even talk of the government putting through a supplementary budget for Dipa and the Hunters’ Party that is entitled to funding because it received share of the vote higher the minimum of 3 per cent. There is a much better solution if the government cannot claim back from parties any of the money it paid this year. If it requires an additional €500,000 for Dipa and the Hunters, it should deduct this amount from next year’s funding of the parties.
