Transparency International Hungary: Parliamentary Parties Overspent During Campaign

(MTI) – Calculations by civil organisations show that the parties that got into parliament have spent a total of 3.5 billion forints (EUR 11.4m) more during the election campaign then allowed by law, legal director at Transparency International Hungary Miklos Ligeti said on Monday.

Ligeti told a conference that according to the calculations by TI Hungary, investigative journalism web portal atlatszo.hu and watchdog K-Monitor, green opposition LMP was the only party that did not exceed the legal campaign spending limit.

TI Hungary Jozsef Peter Martin said Hungary is at 47th place in world and 20th place in the 28-member European Union based on its “corruption performance” and a recent EU anti-corruption report showed that 89 percent of Hungarians believe corruption is a very big problem in the country as against the EU average if 76 percent.

One of the main reasons behind this is campaign financing, which has been an unresolved issue for the past twenty years, with parties using funds in an uncontrollable way.

Ligeti said the “civil campaign monitor” showed that the ruling Fidesz-Christian Democrats spent 2.78 billion forints on the election campaign as against the lawful limit of 995 million forints. The left-wing alliance spent 1.6 billion forints and radical nationalist Jobbik over 1.2 billion forints, he added.

Photo: Daily News Hungary

Source: http://mtva.hu/hu/hungary-matters