§ Electoral Code art. 51State material support for election campaigns

State material support for election campaigns
(1) State material support for election campaigns shall be provided in the form of
subsidies from the State budget to political parties in line with Law No 294/2007 on political
parties, free airtime, interest-free credits and other forms provided for by law.
(2) In any type of election, with the exception of referendums, the Central Electoral
Commission shall determine by decision the amount of the interest-free credit that may be
granted to electoral competitors.
(3) In the case of parliamentary and local elections, the amount of interest-free credits
shall be established for political parties, electoral blocks and separately for independent
candidates, irrespective of the number of registered candidates and/or eligible positions for
which they stand. In the case of presidential elections, the amount of the interest-free credit
shall be set in a single size for all electoral competitors.
(4) The regulation on how to grant and repay interest-free loans to electoral
competitors to run the election campaign shall be approved by the Ministry of Finance.
(5) Credits from the State budget shall be received only through a financial agent
appointed for that purpose by the electoral competitor. The agent may be a natural person or
a legal person registered with the Ministry of Finance, who shares joint and several liability
with the electoral competitor appointing him/her. The application for credit shall be submitted
to the Ministry of Finance.
(6) The credits received from the State are partially extinguished by the State,
depending on the total number of valid votes cast for the electoral competitor in the
constituency concerned. The amount of money, determined by dividing the amount of the loan
by the number of voters who took part in the vote, then by multiplying the highest valid result
of the votes cast for the electoral competitor concerned, shall be extinguished from the State
budget.
(7) An electoral competitor who has withdrawn his/her candidacy shall be obliged to
repay the credit allocated from the State budget for the conduct of election campaign within 2
months of the withdrawal of his/her candidacy.
(8) Political parties, electoral blocks and independent candidates shall repay the
credits without interest in the amount determined in accordance with paragraph (7) within 3
months from the date of the elections.
(9) The provisions of paragraphs (2) to (8) shall not apply to initiative groups and
participants in a referendum.
(10) Political parties that have set up initiative groups and/or nominated candidates for
elections, benefiting from subsidies from the State budget, shall have the right to transfer
maximum 50% of the amounts allocated from the State budget, existing in the account of the
political party at the beginning of the electoral period to bank accounts with the words ‘Electoral
Fund’/‘For the initiative group’, respecting the overall national ceiling of the financial means
that can be transferred for each type of election.