PN ignored five letters from Electoral Commission asking it to publish accounts

The Nationalist Party ignored five requests by the Electoral Commission to publish its accounts for 2021 and 2022, according to a counter protest filed in court.

The commission said it asked the PN to file the necessary documents as required at law in letters dated 18 January 2022, 6 April 2022, 12 January 2023, 10 April 2023 and 14 June 2023.

However, it seems each of these five letters were ignored by the PN, which has not yet submitted its accounts and donation reports for those two years.

The information comes from the Electoral Commission’s reply to a judicial protest filed last January by Labour MEP candidates Daniel Attard and Maria Sara Vella Gafà. The protest addressed towards the PN and the Electoral Commission requested the Opposition party to promptly submit its accounts.

Each registered political party is obliged to submit its accounts and list of donors, according to the parameters set by the law regulating political party financing. After vetting the documents, the Electoral Commission then publishes the accounts and donor reports on its website.

However, in its court reply, the commission said its powers to sanction political parties that fall foul of the law have been curtailed by a constitutional court ruling from 2018. The court ruled back then that the commission could not act as investigator, judge and jury on political party financing investigations since this breached the right to a fair trial.

Since then, the commission has been powerless in enforcing the law and will remain so unless parliament makes the necessary legal amendments. So far, no changes are being prospected.

Nonetheless, in its counter protest the commission said the political parties were still obliged to adhere to the law.

“The commission stresses that it is in everybody’s interest that the law is respected without the need to be threatened by sanctions. The commission feels every political party should act responsibly so that the law is respected always, all the more when the commission’s hands are tied because of a ruling given by the country’s highest court,” the counter protest reads.

In their judicial protest, Daniel Attard and Maria Sara Vella Gafà had pointed out that the PN is susceptible to a fine of up to €20,000 for each year, coupled with additional penalties for its non-disclosure of donors.

They also accused the PN of exhibiting a disregard for legal obligations without a justifiable excuse.

The PN has not replied to the judicial protest, something it is not obliged to do.