The Electoral Commission should monitor whether election candidates are spending beyond the legally-sanctioned threshold of €1,400 on their campaigns, Alternattiva Demokratika general secretary Ralph Cassar said yesterday.

The big parties are turning the elections into the theatre of the absurd

While AD believed that the legal limit was too low, and should increase to €4,000 per candidate, Mr Cassar questioned if the commission was looking into whether the law was being respected.

Standing in Valletta’s St George’s Square, in front of the Palace which houses Parliament, Mr Cassar held up flyers being sent by candidates to all homes and advertising activities in costly five-star hotels.

He said that should AD be elected to Parliament it would present motions on the financing of political parties. AD believed in the introduction of strict rules on donations to the parties, coupled with State financing of political parties.

Donations over €5,000 should be declared by parties and those over €40,000 should be made illegal. In the case of State financing, he said, AD suggested that political parties should get €3 for every vote obtained during a general or a European election each year.

AD chairman Michael Briguglio said it was very fitting that the Nationalist and Labour parties were carrying out fundraising activities over the Carnival period. “They are turning the elections into the theatre of the absurd. They criticise each other for not saying where their money is coming from and then, they do not publish their own finances,” he said.

AD insisted that the two large parties publish their accounts and gave a breakdown of donations, including barters.

“Big money is being spent in this electoral campaign and fundraising campaigns by both the PN and the PL are an insult to people’s intelligence because both have close ties to big business,” he said.