Senate passes electoral bill
THE Senate yesterday passed the Electoral Commission (Interim) Act, paving the way for the transformation of the Electoral Advisory Committee (EAC) into a commission of Parliament.
The passage of the bill in the Senate comes on the heels of Wednesday’s criticism of the upper chamber by the EAC, for failing to pass the legislation last Friday. The bill, first passed by the House of Representatives on September 26, will now go back to the House on Tuesday for final approval before being sent to the governor-general for his assent.
The Senate made amendments to the bill, based on comments from Opposition senators Anthony Johnson and Arthur Williams. These included allowing the commission to make regulations, subject to an affirmative vote by the House of Representatives.
The bill was piloted by the Leader of Government Business in the Senate A J Nicholson, the attorney-general.
The debate on the legislation, in the meantime, lasted four-and-a-half hours, as both sides addressed the current political issues of campaign financing and the Trafigura money scandal.
Government member, Senator Trevor Munroe, whose resolution requesting that the EAC table a report on the financing of political parties delayed the debating of the bill from last week, said that he had no apology for pushing the issue.
“I am therefore particularly happy to see that the commission is to function to, among other things, approve political parties eligible to receive state funding with respect to any or all aspects of the electoral process,” he said.
However, Munroe admitted that while state funding was agreed on between the political parties, as well as significant sections of civil society, “it is not going to be popular amongst our people”.
He said that state funding did not need to be primarily in the form of cash, but could include the state underwriting some services. He also suggested that state funding should not substitute for private donations. However, he said, that a limit should be placed on the extent of both private and public funding.
But opposition member, Senator Dorothy Lightbourne, warned that the legislation alone would not resolve the issue of tainted funds flowing into the coffers of the political parties. She said that there was a need to find out how funding, like the $31 million from Trafigura Beheer, found its way into the People’s National Party’s campaign account.
“Now we recognise that we will have to go much further because the Trafigura experience has shown us that hole. How would we have known about the CCOC account? We need to find out about it, because that is where the secret party financing went. We must find a way to get to those accounts,” she said.
Lightbourne added that in countries which have introduced regulations, the political parties have found other ways of getting funding because the funds were drying up, and the only way to resolve the problem was to find a way to get to the root of the problem.
“So let us not rush and pass laws that we know are not going to get to the root of the problem,” she added.
Leader of Opposition Business Senator Anthony Johnson praised those who have served on the EAC through the years as well as the EAC’s introduction of electronic voter identification which, he said, has greatly reduced the incidents of multiple voting.
Other speakers in the debate included Senators Christopher Tufton, Floyd Morrison, Noel Monteith and Delano Franklyn.
balfordh@jamaicaobserver.com