Draft bill on financing of Suriname parties for Parliament

(De Ware Tijd) THE HAGUE – The Democracy Unit of the University of Suriname has presented a draft bill on the financing of political parties to Parliament. The draft bill proposes to let the State finance political parties. Hans Breeveld, director of the Democracy Unit, tells DWT that at the moment, there is absolutely no transparency with regard to parties’ financial sources. Furthermore, parties are very dependent on sponsors and donors. Breeveld says that in the draft, it is up to Parliament to determine which parties will receive what amounts from the State. “The point is that parties should not become dependent on all those donors and sponsors”, Breeveld says. Public administration expert August Boldewijn, who did some research into the financing of political parties for the draft, says the draft bill is also intended to prevent political parties from becoming dependent on criminal money. The research also shows that political parties obtain financial and material resources in several ways. These include contributions from members, donations, sponsoring and fundraising activities. Donations are the biggest source of income, particularly during election campaigns. Breeveld calls the dependence on donors “big”. This means political parties do not express the will of the people sufficiently. The internal dependence within the party also becomes big, as the attitude is one of “who pays, decides”.