Next election could cost parties, gov’t $2 billion, says Franklyn
SENATOR Delano Franklyn, the junior foreign minister, says the next general election could cost the two major political parties and the state approximately $2 billion.
The two major political parties, the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) and the People’s National Party (PNP), he said, could together spend a total of $1 billion, while the government could be asked to find another $1 billion to fund the election. Senator Franklyn said that in the circumstances none of the two parties can deny that they have to seek funding from private sources, at home and abroad.
The new Electoral Commission, he added, would have to sit and determine how to implement campaign financing against the background of those costs.
Franklyn was responding to issues raised by Opposition member, Senator Christopher Tufton, as the Senate last Friday debated the Electoral Commission Interim Act, which it passed, paving the way for the transformation of the Electoral Advisory Committee (EAC) into a commission of Parliament.
According to Senator Franklyn, it will cost each candidate a minimum of $5 million to put up a good campaign, which would total $600 million for the 60 constituencies. He said that, in addition, the two parties would need about $200 million each for their oversight activities, including the publication of manifestos, advertisements and offices.
“The EOJ has said that it will cost them a shade under $1 billion… so it is costing the country $2 billion,” Franklyn said.
He said, however, that in terms of the EOJ, there was no difficulty as the government would finance its activities.
“The question I ask is, where will this $1 billion come from for the political parties? And I say to you, branch dues on your side cannot cover $500 million, or group dues on our side cannot cover $500 million,” he said.
During the sitting, Franklyn clashed with Tufton on several points raised in the debate, including the effect of the Trafigura scandal, the use of public agencies to support the government during election campaigns and the need for agreement in the bipartisan consultations on the appointment of independent members of the Commission.
The exchange began with Senator Tufton accusing the state of consistently using public funds to finance its campaign.
He said that, in addition to matters like Trafigura, there were other financing issues such as that of the state using its “authority and its incumbency” to use taxpayers’ resources, in a manipulative manner, to support political activities to shore up their political stocks at the constituency level.
He said that this was “a serious threat to our democratic process”, but was occurring in an increasing manner over the last couple of elections.
Senator Tufton named the National Housing Trust (NHT) as being among those state agencies and ministries taking out full-page advertisements, radio advertisements, and speaking which support “the wonderful things they are doing as a government”.
Said Tufton: “In many cases, if you look at the schedule of these advertisements, none of it takes place outside of the political campaigning. One does not have to posseses any major intellectual capacity to recognise and to accept that the state has consistently, certainly this government and certainly in the last general election and I do believe the one before, used state agencies, state resources to promote the interest of the political party and the government.”
He added that in South West St Elizabeth, where he is the JLP’s candidate, parochial roads were being repaired by the National Works Agency (NWA) without any consultation with the parish councils under which they fall. He suggested that the Electoral Commission take on these issues in the interest of preserving the democratic process.
On the issue of how independent members were to be selected for the commission, Tufton said that the first schedule of the bill speaks to them being appointed by the governor-general, based on consultations with the prime minister and the leader of the opposition.
He said, however, that currently consultation was not being used in its true sense.
“In other words, you could have a situation, as is the practice, where consultation means advising the opposition party or the opposition leader that these are the persons the government plans to appoint to the commission,” Tufton said.
“It is going to be absolutely essential that when we say consultation, there is agreement among the contending parties that those persons who are appointed enjoy the trust and confidence of the competing entities, or it could undermine the authority and functions of the commission,” he added.
But Franklyn said that Tufton’s accusation of state agencies being manipulated by government around the time of elections, was an assertion that should be rejected
“I will tell you why it should be rejected. The NHT has a board of persons who have been carrying out their duties diligently, and it is wrong for us to use the privilege of Parliament to attack those persons. It is wrong,” Franklyn said.
He said that such accusations created problems in getting people to serve.
Franklyn also questioned whether Tufton was saying that the governor-general would not consult the two parties before naming the members.
He noted that the first schedule calls on the governor-general to do the consulting.
“He said that this consultation must be consultation in real terms. Is he saying that our Governor General will not consult in real terms?” Franklyn asked.
Senator Tufton rose on a point of clarification to explain that his reference was to the two political parties agreeing on the person to be appointed as independent members, and not the Governor General.
Senator Franklyn said that Senator Tufton must have misunderstood the schedule to have made the remark.