ZAGREB, August 5, 2019 – Slavko Kojić of the Labour and Solidarity Party of Zagreb Mayor Milan Bandić on Sunday dismissed the findings by the State Election Commission (DIP) that the City of Zagreb’s billboards used during campaigning for May’s European Parliament election covertly promoted Bandić’s political party and were paid for with money from the city budget.
In a report on an inspection of campaign financing in the EU election, DIP said that jumbo posters with information about the City of Zagreb were paid for from the city budget and were in fact covert electioneering by Bandić’s party.
City authorities put up 175 jumbo posters on billboards during the election campaign which all carried the City of Zagreb logo and promoted various events and achievements by the city.
The DIP said that the number of posters displayed in 2019 was disproportionately higher than in previous years.
Kojic told a news conference on Sunday that DIP had not asked the Labour and Solidarity Party for its position on the matter, which was why the party had to make it public.
In its statement, the party said that Bandić was not an office-holder or candidate running in the election, which, it said, was the legal precondition for DIP’s assessment and therefore the party considered DIP’s accusation unfounded.
Asked if Bandić had used a legal loophole to pay for his party election campaigning with taxpayers’ money without actually violating the law, Kojic said that the mayor had only wanted to mark the city’s day and inform citizens of the progress made.
He added that the messages on the billboards did not contain any party or election symbols and that DIP’s accusation was based on an impression.
More news about Milan Bandić can be found in the Politics section.
