The government will not provide any subsidies to political parties contesting the 2017 general election until after it has been held.
The decision is based on a revision to law article 3/2004 – now amended to article 2/2016 – under which political parties previously received a subsidy prior to an election being held.
President of the National Election Commission (CNE) Alcino Barris said the reason for the change was because of the high number of parties contesting the upcoming general election.
“Now we have changed it and will provide a subsidy based on the number of votes that they (political parties) receive in the election,” said Barris.
He said the amount of the subsidy would be determined later according to the law.
In the 2012 general election parties that ran independently received a $20,000 subsidy, while those that joined a coalition received $30,000.
National MP Paul Moniz said the change to the law was part of efforts to ensure political parties did not become financially dependent on the government.
“Many parties are being established and they should have their own finance,” he said.
He said the law now clearly states that political parties must be responsible for their campaign without any funding from the government.
“The government will provide funding after the election, but if the party receives no votes, they will not get any money,” he said.
Meanwhile, local resident Alvaro Fernandes said he agreed with the change to the subsidy law for political parties.
“The government already gave money (in previous elections), but then in the end they couldn’t win, so it was a waste of money,” he said.
