Legal Eye: Further limits on those campaign billboards

Unfortunately, I had to admit that this issue would not be high on the reform agenda of any political party. As consolation, I decided to review the existing limitations on campaign finance and expenditure.

The sky's not the limit
With the amount of advertising bombarding you, you may think that political parties can spend as much as they can rake in. Nevertheless, limitations do exist. No party may spend more than zł.1 per eligible voter in a campaign. With the official eligible voter head count at just over 30 million for this year's elections, that's the maximum amount of złoty, if a party campaigns in every election district in Poland. Only 80 percent of this amount, however, may be used for advertising expenses.

No cash, please
Before a party has to worry about spending too much, it must first do some campaign fund-raising. But even here, limitations abound, most of them focusing on contributions from individual persons. For the upcoming Presidential election, no individual may contribute to a campaign more than zł.12,735. And forget about donations from foreigners, whether or not living in Poland. Also, campaign committees are not allowed to pass the hat or shake tin cans. And to make sure that the parties can track all those funds coming in the door, campaign contributions may not be made in cash - only payments by check, wire transfer or debit card are acceptable.

Pennies from heaven
Recent press reports have spoken much about voting percentages. Not only is this relevant to the issue of whether a party gets into the Sejm, but also whether it qualifies for an annual subsidy. Yes, budgetary funds are used to support political parties that achieve at least three percent of the overall votes in the election districts in which their candidates ran for the Sejm. A coalition of political parties that garners at least six percent of the vote is also eligible for this subsidy.

But the real pay-off comes when a party's candidates to the Sejm and Senate win an election. Through a specific grant, the government reimburses a portion of the campaign costs of political parties, based on the percentage of seats won by its candidates.

After the votes are counted and the election circus has faded, the political parties are left with the real work - of filling out campaign finance statements. In these statements, parties must explain, among other things, from whence the money came and how it was spent. And this, too, needs to be done in the all-important first 100 days of a new government. Unlike the reforms that the various parties have promised to enact, failure to submit these statements won't mean further delays in Poland's economic development, just a reduction in the subsidies and grants that the party was eligible to receive.

Judith Gliniecki is the managing partner of Rymar and Partners