11 days are left till the end of the election campaign that started on April 6, but, political parties still have millions in their pre-election funds. Judging from the fund expenditures, one can say that the RPA, the PAP and the Heritage Party haven’t spared money and have allowed themselves a dissolute and licentious campaign.
The Republican Party of Armenia has put 94 156 780 AMD, a bit less than 100-million-AMD maximum provided for by the law, into its fund, 53 366 440 AMD out of which they have already spent. During a conversation with www.aravot.am, Davit Harutyunyan, the RPA financial adviser and the head of the National Assembly State and Legal Issues Standing Committee, communicated that they had paid only 32 million 500 thousand out of the money spent. According to the data presented to the Central Electoral Commission (CEC) by the RPA, the party still has 40 790 340 AMD on its account.
The Heritage Party has already spent 55 million AMD on TV and radio advertisement and has spent 10 million AMD to advertise the party on billboards, with booklets and T-shirts. In sum, the Heritage Party has put 75 997 400 AMD into the fund and according to Armen Torosyan, the authorized representative of the party, 67 million AMD have been spent.
The PAP has spent 53 596 560 AMD from its pre-election fund. According to the data of the CEC website, the Prosperous Armenia Party has put 71 million AMD into the fund. The PAP still has 17 403 440 AMD to spend.
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The work experience of Varuzhan Hoktanyan, the executive director of Transparency International Anti-Corruption Center, showed that money is mainly spent during the last week of the election campaign, therefore, the experts of the center haven’t summarized and compared the results of the monitoring of money put into the party funds and actually spent. Mr. Hoktanyan said during a conversation with www.aravot.am that the process of this year’s monitoring showed that there would be no significant differences between the money in the funds and the actual expenditures, since according to the new Electoral Code, gas expenditures, salaries of headquarters workers and other kinds of expenditure are not included in the mandatory expenditures anymore.
According to the expert, 100 million AMD should include money spent on propaganda articles, broadcasting time, lease of halls and headquarters, preparing posters and booklets.
We inquired from Mr. Hoktanyan what “services” the parties usually lied about. The expert at Transparency International stated that monitoring had shown that there were differences in sums in terms of printing propaganda articles, as a rule. “They usually print posters, prepare and erect billboards more than they show. They constitute more money for market prices, but they present for discount prices. However, a mandatory condition has been adopted that it should be for market prices. It is a very common thing around the world that they do it for discount prices and it contains corruption risks. Afterwards, when the given party enters the parliament or the given candidate is elected an MP, one should express the due gratitude.”
As for the previous elections, Mr. Hoktanyan communicated that the RPA had announced 58 million 909 thousand AMD, but the monitoring of the anti-corruption center had shown that the RPA expenditures had gone beyond 79 million AMD, “The PAP officially announced 44 million 665 thousand AMD, the monitoring showed 129 million 689 thousand.”
Lusine BUDAGHYAN
