Walker won’t rush campaign financing report
Director of Elections Danville Walker yesterday dismissed a proposal from the Senate for his report on campaign financing to be tabled in two weeks as both a “knee-jerk” and “bandwagon” reaction to the current Trafigura Beheer controversy.
“I understand you have a nice, juicy matter going in the press, and so everyone jumps on the issue. The correct word is the wagon: Everybody jumps on the bandwagon,” Walker told the Observer. “In fact, the wagon is so full now, there is hardly any room for the EAC any more.”
He said that he is currently working on the report, which came out of a bipartisan meeting hosted by the Electoral Advisory Committee (EAC) in July, at which proposals were made and recommendations drafted, pending political consensus, and that the report would be ready within three months.
Walker was responding to the Senate’s decision to start debate this morning on a resolution tabled last week by Government member Trevor Munroe, seeking to have the EAC table its report on the recommendations from the July meeting within two weeks.
Munroe made the proposal amidst fresh calls for political campaign financing sparked by the firestorm over a $31-million donation to the ruling People’s National Party (PNP) by Dutch oil trader Trafigura, which lifts and sells Nigerian crude on the world market for Jamaica.
The Observer learnt yesterday that following discussions between Leader of Government Business Senator A J Nicholson and Leader of Opposition Business Senator Anthony Johnson, the Government will be referring the resolution to a joint select committee.
However, Jamaica Labour Party general-secretary Karl Samuda said last night that the party would be toeing the line taken by Opposition Leader Bruce Golding on Tuesday in the House of Representatives, that it would not be taking part in any committee discussions prior to the tabling of the EAC report.
Yesterday, Walker insisted that he would not be rushing to complete the report. “We are not going to treat it (Trafigura issue) as if it is a nine-day wonder that we need to react to and pick out some little, quick bits of legislation to please anybody. It’s not going to happen,” he said.
“What I fear is that our usual knee-jerk response to these matters will cause us to rush to have some piece of inadequate legislation, which will sit on the books and give the impression that something has been done when, indeed, nothing has been done,” he added.