Amendments to the law covering political party financing were approved just before Christmas, having been discussed in secret without minutes of the meeting or any record of who presented the proposed changes.
All the public are allowed to know is the parties that approved the changes and that these now will be analysed by the President of the Republic and signed, or rejected.
MPs voted electronically on Thursday, 21 December, for amendments to the law on party financing.
The law changes cover three major areas: to give the Political Accounts and Financing body the powers for the investigation of irregularities and illegalities and the possible imposition of fines; to put an end to the existing revenue limit from political fundraising initiatives; and allowing parties to be reimbursed VAT on election campaign expenses.
The parties that voted against the amendments were the Centro Democrático e Social (CDS) and the one MP from People Animals Nature (PAN.)
The need to change the legislation came after the President of the Constitutional Court asked Parliament to implement changes to the supervisory model.
The debate began in parliament about nine months ago. Meetings have been held behind closed doors, and proposals for amendments to the law were tabled by three unknown political parties, referred to only as Party A, Party B and Party C thus disguising the author of the proposal in question.
The law changes have been approved, and have gone to Belém where President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa already has said that he will analyse the amendments, "There was an amendment that needed to be made - a fundamental change requested by the Constitutional Court to comply with the Constitution in the auditing of accounts." "That was the big change. If there are any more changes in the detail, I'll see," said the President.
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