Finland Times

 

Justice minister Anna-Maja Henriksson. File Photo – Lehtikuva.

The Minister of Justice Anna-Maja Henriksson on Sunday said that that election funding issue will be revisited later, if there is any problem in political parties, local communities and municipal organisations.

 

In an interview with news agency STT, Henriksson said the ministerial working group which will complete its work at the end of April is only a light mapping of the electoral and party funding reform.

 

Meanwhile,  Tomi Venho, a Doctor of Political Sciences who has studied the electoral and party funding on Sunday  in an interview with Finnish language daily Turun Sanomat criticised the working group's mandate which he said does not include the role of local communities and municipal organisations in election funding.

 

According to Venho, political parties pump funds to local communities and local municipal organisations but they fail to comply with the obligation to disclose.

 

The Act on Political Parties requires the disclosure by local communities to the National Audit Office. The law, however, does not penalise failure of disclosure.

 

According to the newspaper, eight parliamentary parties have made only 13 local community disclosures, seven of which have been made by the Kansallinen Kokoomus (National Coalition Party)-NCP.

 

Venho told the newspaper the fact that over seven of all disclosures have been made by the NCP does not, in anyway, correspond to the actual overall picture.