The cost of leadership campaigns
The candidates running for the leadership of the New Democracy party, which will be holding elections tomorrow, appear to be spending significant amounts of money in order to run their election campaigns, which included the hopefuls delivering speeches and holding rallies all over Greece. However, the law that allows for the inspection of political party finances does not cover such internal party matters, so it is not possible for tax officials nor the wider public to obtain any reasonably true picture of how the campaign money has been handled. Voters, furthermore, have a right to know exactly how much these campaigns have cost and how the money spent by the various candidates has been procured. Regardless of the outcome of tomorrow’s New Democracy leadership election, it would be correct and just for each of the three candidates standing in the conservative party’s contest to commit to publishing a detailed account of their campaign expenses and to make all the relevant data available to independent auditors.
