Draft bill #10401 of January 10, 2024
Sponsors: MP Dmytro Kostiuk, Servant of the People faction
Status: sent for review to the Committee on Legal Policy
Who is affected: political parties, citizens of Ukraine, and individuals and legal entities donating to political parties
Summary: state funding of political parties will be suspended while martial law is in effect.
What is wrong: state funding of political parties is an important tool for strengthening democracy in Ukraine and is needed to reduce the influence of oligarchs on politics. Its suspension will make political competition less fair and produce a negative impact on politics after the abolition or termination of martial law.
Alternative solution: the draft bill should be rejected.
Background information: state funding of political parties was introduced in 2016. It was granted to parties that got two or more percent of the votes in the last parliamentary election. The decision to provide funding was up to the NACP. On October 2, 2019, the Verkhovna Rada decided to stop providing state funding to parties that failed to get at least 5% of votes in the last election.
Additional information:
Article by Oksana Zabolotna: Reports with a catch. Why the adopted law on the restoration of reporting of political parties does not solve the problem?
Interview with Magnus Oman: It’s important to understand that state funding of political parties will never be popular.