Given the latest developments regarding the Draft Law on Financing of Political Parties we, civil society organizations, members of the Advisory Group established by the Ad-hoc Parliamentary Committee for the improvement and strengthening of the electoral process comprised of the caucus leaders, are hereby informing the general public and all relevant stakeholders involved in this process of our suspension of participation in the Advisory Group and in the work of the Ad-hoc Commission until the withdrawal of this draft law.

We consider that the current draft law is in direct contradiction with “the constitutional spirit” and the electoral reform initiated by the Assembly of Kosovo. The draft law allows the diminishing of the main principles of political life by jeopardizing the integrity of the entire electoral reform process, including the violation of the independence of the Political Party Registration Office. The current draft law fails to address the priorities of the European Reform Agenda (ERA) for transparency, accountability, implementation and effective sanctioning in the financing of political parties, enabling political entities to hide the identity of their financial contributors, by raising the ceilings for these contributions, by extending the deadlines for publishing financial reports of their campaign and by reducing fines in cases when parties breach the law.

Since the Draft Law on Financing of Political Entities cannot be considered independently of the Electoral Reform and since the same draft seriously jeopardizes this whole reform process, we request that the draft law be withdrawn by the sponsor or voted against by the members of the Assembly of Kosovo.

Ad-hoc Committee on Improving and Strengthening the Election Process was formed in April this year and was primarily aimed at addressing the recommendations of EU election observers. In this Committee, in addition to the representatives of political parties, civil society organizations and international partners who have continuously assisted local institutions in capacity building for the administration and monitoring of the electoral process are also involved.

This activity is supported by 100 civil society organizations.

Member organizations in the Advisory Group established by the Ad-hoc Parliamentary Commission for the improvement and strengthening of the electoral process.

Democracy in Action / Kosovo Democratic Institute (KDI)

Democracy for Development (D4D)

Democracy Plus (D +)

Group for Legal and Political Studies (GLPS)

Kosovo Disability Forum