«The legislator identifies what is the true qualifying element of all the subjects who can sustain expenses for the candidate, exempting them from the obligation to account: having presented the list in which the elected candidate has stood as a candidate».
This is one of the most interesting points of the ruling that confirmed the sanction of 40 thousand euros by the Electoral Guarantee Board of the Court of Appeal to Governor Alessandra Todde , as well as – once the alleged violations of the rules of the electoral campaign reporting were definitively ascertained – also the de facto obligation for the Regional Council to decree her dismissal.
An electoral committee is not a party nor is it a political entity: it can certainly support expenses for the candidate, but it cannot exempt him from the burden of presenting his own financial report.
The "M5S Committee for the election of the President of the Sardinia Region 2024", the judges recall, did not present lists, but "supported all the candidates of the coalition, not only those of the 5 Star Movement, also receiving funding from all the parties". This mechanism therefore created a situation of objective confusion - the Court notes - in particular "making it impossible to understand, among the various expenses, which were made in favor of one party or the other and which in favor of the candidate president or the other candidates".
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