POLITICAL parties enjoy little trust among citizens when it comes to their reports about their financing.
Nearly 80 percent of the respondents in a recent poll by the Polis Slovakia polling agency do not trust that the information that political parties provide about their financing are complete and truthful, while only about 9 percent of respondents expressed the opposite opinion, the SITA newswire reported.
Furthermore, 76.5 percent of the respondents do not believe that the control of party financing is objective and effective. Over 42 percent of Slovaks believe there should be an independent control body to oversee party financing, while about 25 percent said an independent auditor could do the job. One quarter of the respondents believe control should be in the hands of the public via the parties publishing their annual reports in the media.
Over 70 percent of Slovaks do not consider the current sanctions for non-transparent party financing to be sufficient, and as many as 83 percent of respondents agree that a party that repeatedly violates the financing rules should be cancelled altogether.
Regarding specific political parties, citizens are most interested in the financing of the ruling Smer party, as cited by 28.8 percent of the respondents. Smer was followed by the opposition Slovak Democratic and Christian Union (SDKÚ), whose financing is of interest to over 12 percent of the respondents. The financing of newcomer Sieť is of interest to 8.2 percent of the citizens, similar to the Christian Democratic Movement (KDH). One quarter of the respondents said they would be interested in the financing of all political parties active in Slovakia, SITA reported.
The poll was carried out for SITA between June 23 and 28 on a sample of 1,322 respondents around the country.
Source: SITA
Compiled by Michaela Terenzani from press reports.
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information
presented in its Flash News postings.
