RIGA - Latvia's anti-corruption bureau (KNAB) found that during the 2006 parliamentary elections the ruling People's Party spent more than half a million lats over the limits set according to the campaign financing law, while four other parties were also found to have violated spending regulations.
KNAB released the highly anticipated investigation results in an Oct. 24 press conference. The report, which meticulously outlined how much the parties spent and in what areas, found that five different parties overspent on their election campaigns by a total of 941,492.32 lats (1,339,622 euros).
Parties were given spending caps following the recent introduction of legislation aimed at curbing rampant campaign outlays.
The 2006 parliamentary elections were marred with controversy when a number of parties were found to have used so-called "shadow" organizations to bypass campaign spending laws. Based on the number of voters, each party was allowed to spend 279,631 lats.
The KNAB report did not specify how much each party would be fined, only indicating how much the parties overspent during last year's elections. Suspended KNAB Chief Aleksejs Loskutovs said, however, that the final fine would not be much higher than the amount that the parties will have to pay back.
The People's Party, the leading member of the four party ruling coalition, came out worst in the report, having overspent by 529,980 lats 's an astounding 189.5 percent over the amount that each party was allocated.
People's Party press secretary Arno Pjatkins said that while the fine is large, it is not so large as to put the party in danger of bankruptcy. "I don't think that the party will have a problem in that regard," he said.
Pjatkins said that the People's Party plans to appeal the fines in court.
It was widely expected that the People's Party would face large fines as a result of the investigation. Delna, the Latvian branch of Transparency International, has previously accused Prime Minister Aigars Kalvitis of attempting to sack the KNAB head in an effort to stymie the investigation into his party's campaign spending practices 's a move that has ultimately resulted in a crisis for the government.
The recently formed LPP/LC party 's which ran last year as the Latvia's First/Latvia's Way election bloc 's is also faced with a large amount of money that it will have to repay. LPP/LC, another member of the ruling coalition, overspent its allowance by 401,610 lats 's overshooting the limit by 143.6 percent.
The other three parties that overspent during the election period are the opposition Harmony Center at 4,464 lats, ruling coalition member Greens and Farmers Union at 3,351 lats and opposition party New Era at 2,087 lats.
The KNAB report estimates that the additional administrative fines facing the People's Party and LPP/LC will be 5,000 lats each, Harmony Center 700 lats, and the Greens and Farmers Union and New Era 500 lats each.
Loskutovs said that the parties will have one month to pay the fines after KNAB formally sends them a request to do so.
