Newsday January 9 2013
Why campaign finance reform matters
The issue of funding for political campaigns is of growing importance, and one
might even venture to say that the question is not if, but how reform should be
accomplished. With general elections looming less than two years hence, it
would appear that this is an opportune time to tackle the monolith that has risen
around us.
Independent Senator Helen Drayton recently piloted a private motion in the
Senate for the establishment of a Joint Select Committee to propose a legislative
framework to govern the financing of election campaigns. Senator Drayton noted
that in the last three and a half years, Trinidad and Tobago has had six elections,
which cost, at her conservative estimate, in excess of 300 million dollars. Further,
she noted, “the maximum sum that could be spent in a national election by a
candidate is 50,000 dollars and for local government election, 25,000 dollars”.
Her views were echoed at a symposium held on December 5th, hosted jointly by
The High Commission of Canada to Trinidad and Tobago, the United Nations
Development Programme and the Trinidad and Tobago Transparency Institute.
The Chamber was pleased to have been a guest of the session and was further
heartened to see that all the major political parties as well as several other
persons in public life were present to listen and participate in the discussions.
It was eye-opening to learn that there is little to govern the funding of political
parties or campaign financing. This can have serious consequences, as presented
at the Symposium in sometimes comic detail by Election and Boundaries
Chairman, Dr. Norbert Masson.
Describing our current legislation as
“rudimentary”, he stated that election laws in Trinidad and Tobago “do not meet
best-practice criteria or benchmarks, most conspicuously on two grounds,
registration of political parties and oversight of campaign financing.”
Registration of political parties is a significant issue, for while both the
Representation of the People Act and what might be termed our country’s
“highest law”, the Constitution, makes reference to elections, candidates and
expenses, there is no definition of what is a political party. By a simple line of
reasoning, for political parties to be registered, exactly what is a political party
must be defined - and that would require legislative reform.
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Newsday January 9 2013
The Chamber too, has taken a vocal stance on the need for such reform. In an
August statement issued in conjunction with the Trinidad and Tobago
Manufacturer’s Association and the American Chamber of Industry and
Commerce, we expressed full support for campaign financing legislation that
mandates full discourse by all elected officials of the use of public resources in the
political and campaigning arena. As we stated, “We cannot continue to focus on
the deleterious effects of crime, without focusing on the effect that secrecy in
campaign financing has on the public perception of wrong-doing at the highest
level of society.”
Funding of political campaigns has an impact that goes beyond elections. At a
time when Trinidad and Tobago’s competitiveness is threatened, we need to, as
the EBC Chairman urged, “bite the bullet” for the good of the nation and the
pursuance of democracy – ideals which must not be lost.
Although the issue is a global one that even the most developed countries are still
struggling with, other countries in the region have taken the plunge, and T&T is
now presented with the opportunity – let us make the most of it.
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