Until 20 November, 62 million lei are being declared in campaign financing contributions

By 20 November, the electoral competitors have declared contributions totalling 62,715,248 lei for the parliamentary election campaign, of which 48,133,481 lei come from the candidates and the rest from the party, according to an Expert Forum (EFOR) report, based on the situation published on the website of the Permanent Electoral Authority (AEP).

According to EFOR, on 13 November, the total amount was 28,395,211 lei.

"Contributions were declared from 43 competitors, of whom 21 were independent. Only four competitors contributed money from the party's private funds, representing a total amount of 3,581,767 lei (PLUS - Party of Liberty, Unity and Solidarity, PSD - Social Democratic Party, USR - Save Romania Union, Pro Romania). The National Liberal Party is the only one that has used subsidies worth 11 million lei. Loans account for almost a quarter of the candidates' contributions. The largest loans were recorded by the PSD (3.7 million), the PNL (3.4 million) and the PMP (People's Movement Party, 2.1 million). PSD contributed 38 pct of the funds, PNL with 32 pct of the total, PMP with 10 pct, and Pro Romania with almost 9 pct, which means that four parties brought 90 pct of the money from the election campaign," the report says.

The largest contribution to the election campaign of an independent candidate, Erwin Albu, was 150,000 lei, followed by contributions of 100,000 lei each for Virgil Baciu and Gabriel Oprea.

According to data published by the AEP, the total contribution level for each electoral competitor is: PNL (24,160,880 lei), PSD (19,874,273 lei), PMP (6,656,636 lei), Pro Romania (5,666,800 lei), USR (3,022,507 lei), PLUS (1,659,300 lei), UDMR (Hungarian Democratic Union of Romania, 770,610 lei).

EFOR recalls that campaign funds can come from candidates' private sources or from party contributions, by supplementing them with up to the equivalent of 60 gross minimum wages. Also, the political party, political alliance or citizens' organization belonging to national minorities can contribute to their own election campaign with up to 10 gross minimum salaries for each candidate. Under a September amendment to Law 334/20068, political parties can use subsidies for the election campaign.

Expert Forum maintains that the database on the financing of the electoral campaign contains "only generic information" and calls on the Permanent Electoral Authority to publish as detailed data as possible about those who have made contributions.