PLUSC Just Can’t Leave Money on the Table
The reform to the election laws will apparently go through, but an agreement by the PLN and PUSC parties will keep the political debt at .19% of PIB. They claim that since no one could agree on whether the debt should be reduced to .10%, .12% or .15%, then it would be better to just leave it as mandated by the constitution. According to PLN deputy Luis Gerardo Villanueva, “the important thing was to fortify the Elections Court (TSE), regulate parties and to penalize irregular financing”.
The political debt is the amount parties may receive for participating in national elections and is divided according to the number of votes each party receives. The political debt is authorized in the Constitution at at .19% of PIB, but many parties wanted to reduce it by half. The debt is so that parties don’t have to take funds from private people or companies, and therefore be obligated to “repay” the contributions.
According to Epsy Campbell, of the Citizen’s Action Party “This is a set up, it came to this so that the upcoming political campaign would not have to be regulated, so they can pilfer without any control. They are putting on a show, actually the reform will not pass, they don’t want it to pass. ”
Humberto Arce, of the Patriotic Union, agreed that there was a lack of will to pass the lower debt and that it was all a game: “The objective is to obtain 4 billion colones more in political debt. This is a juicy business, PUSC understands that it is in political and financial bankruptcy.”