Funding of Political Parties in the Republic of Estonia

Funding of political parties in Estonia is determined mainly by the Political Parties Act enacted in 1994. It was amended many times and the last meaningful modifications were introduced in 2014. The act assumes a diversification of the financing sources and allows parties to be financed from allocations from the state budget, donations given by a natural persons, membership fees, transactions with the property of the political parties as well as loans. It is worth mentioning that clarity and transparency principles of political parties’ funding are guaranteed by an operation of the independent supervisory body – Estonian Party Funding Supervision Committee.

Legal status and financing of political parties in Canada

Canada, as an Anglo-Saxon law system arose, with influences of the American legislation, it has not regulated the status of political parties on the constitutional level. Basis of the existence of political parties in Canada, is the Canadian Charter of rights and freedoms. Rules for the registration and financing of political parties in Canada was systematized in the second half of the 20th century. Currently, the activity of political parties shall be governed by the Canada Elections Act of 2004 and Financial Administration. As a general rule, political parties in Canada should be divided into registered and unregistered. In addition to a number of other rights, registered parties are entitled to special conditions of the financing of their activities. Canadian financing of political parties is the subject of discussion since the 1960s and is based on three pillars: donations from private individuals, funding from the state budget (CA. 2 Canadian dollars for each vote) and reimbursement of election campaign expenses (50% in the case of an overrun of the threshold of 2% of the vote on a national scale). It should be noted that supervision of the activities of political parties in Canada have the Chief Electoral Officer and Chairman of the Central Election Commission.