2014 Presidential campaign finance: contributions amount to nearly 3.7 mln lei

Two weeks after the presidential campaign has been officially launched, the parties, political alliances and independent candidates involved in these elections have collected donations of 3.66 million lei according to a report released by the Permanent Electoral Authority (AEP).

Of the ten political parties engaged in the presidential race, the Christian Liberal Alliance (ACL) resulted from the fusion of the National Liberal Party (PNL) with the Democrat Liberal Party (PDL) received the largest contributions, about 1.5 million lei. The PSD-UNPR-PC electoral alliance has reported smaller donations, of 1.14 million lei, while the third major political organization whose candidate is running for presidency, People’s Moving Party (PMP), rose almost 450,000.

Donations received by the other parties are rather insignificant: the Democratic Union of Hungarians in Romania (UDMR) collected some 17,000 lei, Dan Diaconescu’s People Party rose 7,500 lei and the Greater Romania Party (PRM) received about 1,400 lei, whereas the other four political organizations involved in the presidential elections have not reported any contributions.

As for the independent candidates, Catalin Popescu-Tariceanu, received the largest donations: approximately 292,000 lei, exclusively from individuals’ contributions.  Teodor Melescanu rose close to 165,000 lei, also solely from donations of individuals, whilst Monica Macovei obtained around half of this amount – 73,000 lei from diverse sources (individuals donated 43,000 lei and companies, 30,000 lei). Gheorghe Funar’s reported marginal donations of only 2,500, entirely from behalf of individuals.