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Latvian political parties fined for breaking financing rules ahead of European Parliament election

Xinhua, January 22, 2015 Adjust font size:

The Latvian anti-corruption watchdog has fined five political parties for breaking campaign financing rules ahead of last year's European Parliament election, the watchdog's representatives told journalists on Wednesday.

The Latvian Corruption Prevention and Combating Bureau, which also supervises political party financing, has imposed fines worth 2,870 euros in total on five political parties or electoral blocs which participated in the 2014 European Parliament election in Latvia and had failed to declare a total of 36,700 euros.

Alternative, a small leftist party, was fined 2,700 euros for failing to report 28,000 euros spent on presentation materials and 28,000 euros received in donations. The party had also accepted an individual supporter's donation, the size of which exceeded the statutory limit for individual donations.

The centrist Greens and Farmers Union (ZZS) was fined 100 euros for failing to report its expenses on postal services and online advertising and for misreporting expenses on radio and outdoor advertising.

Out of the 14 political parties or electoral blocs that participated in the European Parliament elections in Latvia, two small parties missed the deadline for declaring their incomes and expenses to the anti-corruption watchdog. One was punished with a 100-euro fine and the other one got a formal reprimand.

Jaroslavs Strelcenoks, the head of the Corruption Prevention and Combating Bureau, said that the 2014 had been "full of challenges" because in addition to the European Parliament election Latvia also held its national parliamentary election last year.

Strelcenoks said that the Latvian political parties did not commit any major violations during the European Parliament election but the average size of donations had doubled in comparison with donations made to political parties ahead of Latvia's local elections in 2013. Enditem