9.2 million euros were spent on this year’s June elections for the European Parliament, according to the interim report of the State Election Commission (DIP), due to the growth of a number of expenses, that is 1.8 million more than the same elections in May 2019.
The amount of 9.2 million euros is not complete, it is missing some costs, such as the amount of compensation that will be received by political parties that won one of the 12 Croatian seats in Brussels.
A total of 159,000 euros have been set aside for this purpose, i.e. 11,415 per won seat and 6,637 euros for the case when a party or an independent candidate does not win a seat in the European Parliament, but receives at least 5 percent of valid votes.
But in order for the participants of the European elections to really receive that amount, their election finances must receive a passing rating from the SEC.
If the SEC has no objections, the HDZ will receive 68,490 euros for six mandates won in the European Parliament, the SDP will receive 45,660 euros for four, and Mozemo and the Homeland Movement, which each have one representative in the European Parliament, Gordan Bosanac and Stephen Nikola Bartulica, 11,415 euros each.
Consolation fee to the IDS coalition
The coalition led by IDS and former MEP Valter Flego should receive a consolation prize of 6,637 euros, which had the described case, crossed the electoral threshold of five percent (5.61 percent), but despite this did not win a seat in the European Parliament.
If you look at the structure of the June election costs, the main part, almost seven million euros, consists of fees for the work of electoral bodies, a smaller part, 2.2 million euros, material costs.
Regarding the costs of the original bodies, the main part, EUR 5.2 million, is made up of fees for the work of electoral committees, then fees for the work of municipal (almost EUR 880,000), city (EUR 353,000), county and Zagreb City Election Commissions (EUR 138,000).
EUR 380,000 should be added to these figures for the compensation of employees who worked in IT, administrative, technical and auxiliary jobs in the election commissions and the Tax Administration.
This year, more than 22 million euros were spent on the elections
Half of the 2.2 million material costs are the costs of APIS IT support for the implementation of the election (1.14 million euros), the printing and distribution of ballots, the production of other election materials, cost 592,000 euros.
300 candidates with 25 lists competed for 12 seats in the EU Parliament in the elections on June 9. Slightly more than 3.7 million voters were able to express their will at 6,751 polling stations in the country and abroad, where, unlike the parliamentary elections, where voting takes place over two days, voting was held for only one day.
When the incomplete costs of the elections for the European Parliament are added up with the costs of the April elections for the Croatian Parliament, which reached almost 13 million euros, it is clear that we have spent more than 22 million euros on the elections this year, and there are still elections waiting for us at the end of the year. for the President of the Republic.
