Televisions and officials donated thousands of Euros and were rewarded with millions
Anila Limani
Skopje - Televisions were the biggest donors to election campaigns of political parties in
Macedonia's early parliamentary elections held in June 5, 2011. The deputies were next after them and then municipal councilors, ministers, judges, teachers, farmers, etc.. Mutual interest is the primary cause of donations of thousands of Euros, which was returned to them almost double. But, even if parties do not admit publicly, their members claim that campaign donors are different businessmen who donate from 30-50 thousand
Euros. They wish to remain anonymous while the money donated by them is presented on the behalf of party activists, divided into lower figures.
According to the election campaign funding report which the parties have submitted to the State Election Commission and State Commission for Anticorruption, TV "Sitel" ,
TV "A1" (now bankrupted) and Television "Kanal 5" are the three biggest donors to the campaigns of the Macedonian political parties VMRO-DPMNE and Social Democratic
League of Macedonia (SDSM). They have donated about 750 thousand Euros.
According to the Financial Report of the VMRO-DPMNE, TV "Sitel" has donated 20 million denars, or around 328 thousand Euros for the campaign of the coalition VMRO-
DPMNE. After TV "Sitel" second in the list is A1 Television, which has donated
15,427,759 denars or about 253 thousand Euros for the campaign of SDSM. The third in the ranking list is the television Kanal 5, which has donated 10.23 million denars, or around 168 thousand Euros for the campaign of the coalition VMRO-DPMNE. But the report submitted from the Albanian political parties, the media does not appear as major campaign donor. If you look closer over the names of donors, they are political party officials, MPs, ministers, municipal councilors, judges, etc.., which have businesses led by individuals close to their families.
VMRO-DPMNE and Democratic Party of Albanians (DPA) have the same method when it comes to the donation of money by legal persons. Each donor has donated 60 000 denars or a thousand Euros, while the donors of the Democratic Union for Integration
(DUI) have donated from 800 to 5 thousand Euros. Meanwhile, SDSM, according to the report submitted has received loans from various banks to finance the campaign, while
DPA has remained in debt with its clients. In the financial report filed by the coalition
VMRO-DPMNE 530 legal persons with various professions have donated each a thousand Euros. In these 530 people, you can find the full names of municipal counselors, teachers, farmers, and even the courts. Besides the two national TVs "Sitel" and "Kanal 5" who had donated about 500 thousand Euros, as campaign donors for the
VMRO-DPMNE coalition are also 30 local radio and television from Macedonia who have donated from 22 000 denars or 350 Euros to 1 400 000 thousand denars or about 23 thousands of Euros. All these local radio and television stations have donated 5,829,600, denars or about 96 thousand Euros.

As the campaign donors of DPA are shown 11 deputies and party officials who have donated a thousand Euros each.
In the submitted financial report DUI, its showed that the amount of money donated ranges from 50 000 denars, or about 800 Euros to 300 000 thousand denars or around 5 thousand Euros. For DUI, 5 thousand Euros have been donated by 10 donors, while the amount donated by other donors varies from one thousand Euros to 4 900 thousand
Euros.
According to the Financial Report submitted by SDSM, excluding A1 television, another potential donor is Plus Produkcija which has donated 3,904,080 denars or 64 thousand of
Euros. Besides the two media donors of SDSM, it had been taken money in the amount od 5 thousand Euros each by two legal entities. Other campaign money, according to the financial report of the party is provided by loans that the party has taken in two banks.
Anti Corruption Commission: There is a violation of the Law
The report that the State Anti Corruption Commission has submitted to the parliament said that the Commission during their analysis of reports submitted by the parties for the financing the election campaign for the early elections in June has found a lot of violations of the law, which cast a shadow on the legality of the whole process of the elections. The head of Anti Corruption Commission, Vojislav Zafirovski said that on the financing the election campaign during the early parliamentary elections violation of the law has been found. SDSM has violated the Law, using resources that are not allowed by the law to finance the campaign; they used funds from loans, which are not set by law as a means to finance campaigns.
"The general conclusion is that there are many differences between the means provided for the campaign by our political parties and the amount that is required. So, seeing it in cumulative way, by reports that they have handed out, it is revealed that the means given and those outstanding for the media hold a report of four to one with VMRO-DPMNE, one to one in the case of SDSM and DPAs is three to eight, "Zafirovski explained.
He said that handing two kinds of reports by three subjects, SDSM, A1 Television and
Plus Produkcija, the first reports before the set deadline, while the second reports after the deadline, and major differences in the data between the two reports make these three subjects not credible and illustrate the misapplication of legal regulations, an act punishable under the election law, even under the Criminal Law. "Handing the report twice by A1 TV and Production Plus, where the second report brings the withdrawn of the first one, I concluded that they have not adjusted the report within the deadline, this act is punishable by law. However, they were taken into account when analyzing the report and made their comparison with other relevant entities in order to provide more accurate findings, "said Zafirovski. State Anti-Corruption Commission has concluded that some media reports, political reports and the report of the Broadcasting Council can hardly be compared to draw clear conclusions, which indicates violation of the law in the methods used.
VMRO returns the donated money to the televisions with government advertisements

Two televisions TV "Sitel" and TV "Kanal 5" who donated over 500 thousand Euros to the campaign of VMRO-DPMNE, after the establishment of the new government get all advertisements of the it and other governmental institutions. According to official data in the first half of 2011, the Government has spent around 2 million Euros for various governmental campaigns and more than half of these funds have ended up at TV "Sitel" and TV "Kanal 5". The director of the Association for Democratic Initiatives (ADI),
Albert Musliu thinks that all political parties reach a consensus when it comes to the financing of the electoral campaigns, due to, as he says, lack of the political will to regulate this market."Unfortunately in this case all political parties are interested and they quickly find a compromise. This allows them not to regulate the issue with the financing of the campaigns. This is one of the topics where rapid consensus among political parties is achieved, "says Musliu adding that any political entity ever been in this position hasn’t regulated this market. “The interest of TV Sitel' and TV “Kanal5 'is clear, the owners of the two televisions were on the deputies list of VMRO-DPMNE on the elections of June
5th. There is no legal shield that will not allow it; there is no donation limit, "he says, mentioning the case of Obama that attracted a record amount for his campaign, but with donations from 100 to 150 dollars. He says that in Macedonia is seen as normal for a businessman who collaborates with public funds to finance election campaigns, this is an absurd, because, Musliu says there is conflict of interests, you fund the one who pays you. "We are witnesses of the situation where there is a political party, whose leader now holds legal responsibility for the way of financing the campaign, but the amount compared with the major parties, is minor," he says, adding that the unregulated financing of the campaigns of political parties is an open door for the next corruption, because, as he says, if someone funds your campaign he asks to be paid off when that party becomes the ruling party in the state.
"The retaliation of somebody in an illegal way is corruption. Therefore the international community insists this phenomenon to be adjusted as precisely as possible, so the ruling party later has less obligations of retaliation of those who have financed their campaign. Also the parties return their debts using public money, not their own party savings. The governmental advertisements are not being paid by political parties but by us. But they are favors to be returned, "says the director of ADI Musliu. He says that there is no biggest absurd in the world that when a farmer, or a judge donates a thousand
Euros for any political campaign." Limits needs to be set, rules should be set so the market of financing political campaigns to be regulated in order to stop abuses. Even when the government is being advertised a tender should be announced. They have no legal right to choose on their own the media where the advertising is going to be showed. We have had cases where highly popular media like A1 TV didn’t get any governmental advertising while they were being showed in another media with little visibility. It all starts from the financing, "he said.
The law for media owners exists only on paper
According to the Broadcasting Law it is forbidden that political persons or their family

members to be owners of electronic media. Specifically, the Article 11 of the
Broadcasting Law says that: public officials and their family members have no right to be the owner or co-owner of any electronic media. According to the Broadcasting Law, if any violation is being done of this Article the working license of the media will be taken.
The Broadcasting Council has had a year to explore this issue, and even after a year has not yet reached a clear conclusion. Deputy Director of the Broadcasting Council, Milaim
Fetau before a year has demanded an investigation of the national media how is the
Article 11 of the Law on Broadcasting is being implemented. "Officially, the
Broadcasting Council's main task is the implementation of the Broadcasting Law. Based on this, a year ago, without quoting any media, I asked the Council and my decision was accepted, our sectors to explore and see if is violated the Article 11 of the Broadcasting
Law. This application was filed before a year, has been heard and now is being discussed on this issue. Because now we also have suggestions from the European Commission, I expect that our sectors have brought the material to see how far the issue is, at least for the national media, "says the Broadcasting Council's Deputy, Milaim Fetai. He says it is important for the Commission to at least find the violation. "I do not know how it will be later, because indications are that TV 'Sitel' and “Kanal 5” should be penalized, but you know well the political will and environment in Macedonia. If we conclude that we can not bring into action what the law says, it was proposed the amending of the Article 11 in the forthcoming law. Not to exist anymore that Article which is here and is being constantly violated "says Fetai.
For years officials donate 5 percent of their salary willingly to their party
An official who has donated a certain amount for the campaign to the party he belongs
(whose name is known to the author of this text) says he has donated that money, having had pleasure to contribute in the progress of election campaign of his party. "It's a voluntary contribution due to smooth running of elections. As director of a public institution in full awareness I have given 5 percent of my monthly salary to the political entity, in their account, as a voluntary contribution so that my modest contribution can be useful for the progress of activities at the party, for the preparation of the election campaign, providing optimal conditions for the party. I have considered that these three years as director my contribution has been necessary, same as were useful the contributions of thousands of my colleagues who have practiced this model of voluntary contributions, "he says. According to internal party agreements, every deputy, minister, deputy minister, director of the institution, the deputy director and other officials, stores 5 percent of their salary into the account of their party.
Meanwhile, the analyst Ismail Sinani says that the merging of the political power of these
Macedonian media owners with the political party which is currently in power has an obligation to achieve the objectives of the currently ruling mental frame.
"In my opinion we shouldn’t be very wise to realize why this connection exists between some concrete media which are mentioned by name and surname and political parties. This is a case of a perfect political power of these Macedonian media owners and the political party which is currently in power. So in here we are not talking about the deeds in favor of the population, but for purposes that have an obligation to achieve the

objectives of the cliques that actually has the ruling power, "he says.
Bering in mind the large sums of money, according to Sinani, this indicates that there is a case of buying off the structures that the ruling party has found a job for.
"In the case of legal persons, if there are members from the judiciary, it can be said that the conflict of interest is created, considering that the judiciary and the executive should have separate ways. But the discovery of this affair is clear evidence than this ruling party power has managed to go deep in the work of the judiciary, to that extent that it has managed to control the work of the judiciary in the country, "he estimates.
In the last 20 days of the election campaign, according to the report submitted by political parties, they spent about 5 millions of Euros. The ruling VMRO-DPMNE spent 4, 4 million Euros, SDSM spent 285 thousand Euros for the campaign, the Democratic Union for Integration (DUI) 63 thousand Euros, while the Democratic Party of Albanians (DPA) has spent 44 thousand Euros.
These are the figures that the parties have shown to the State Election Commission and the Anti Corruption Commission. By now the campaign of the early parliamentary elections of June 5th has been the most expensive one in Macedonia.