MONEY TRAIL

Legislators from both major political parties in Jamaica agree that reforms to the country’s campaign financing laws are necessary though they differ on the specifics of what those changes should entail.

Dr Horace Chang, general secretary of the ruling Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), is calling for full public funding of election campaigns. Meanwhile, Peter Bunting, co-chair of the People’s National Party (PNP) national campaign, argues that the public disclosure of election donors will only occur if it is mandated by law.

The discussion, which comes ahead of a pending general election due by September, stemmed from separate Gleaner Editors’ Forums with members of the JLP and the PNP at the newspaper’s headquarters in Kingston.

Chang pointed out that many political donors prefer to remain anonymous, with only a few choosing to disclose their contributions publicly. He explained that seasoned candidates often secure donations ahead of the official campaign period.

Under the Election Campaign Financing Act, donations made during the campaign period must be declared to the Electoral Commission of Jamaica (ECJ), which also serves as the Office of the Political Ombudsman. The ombudsman is empowered to investigate potential violations.

Pressed on whether candidates used the perceived loophole to avoid declaring donations, Chang said they do what is legal because donors do not wish to declare their contributions publicly.

“The law is there for people rushing to literally buy an election. They will have to declare it. You’re getting $10 million to $20 million in an election period. [That’s] an issue,” said Chang, who is serving his fifth term as the member of parliament for St James North Western.

Chang also suggested that it may be time to review the legislation, which was passed in 2016, noting that this was his personal view and had not yet been discussed by JLP leadership.

“We have to look towards public financing,” said Chang, who also serves as deputy prime minister and national security minister.

“I think with most political parties, the leadership has not looked at it because if you mention that you spend couple million dollars on political campaigning, everybody starts to raise their eyes – why you going to spend that? It costs that, [but] we’ve kept the law as it is,” said Chang.

The legislation permits contributions from only legal entities such as companies or natural persons.

Foreign governments, public bodies, and anonymous donors are prohibited from contributing to campaigns.

All contributions, regardless of amount, must be reported to the ECJ, including details of the donors.

In the 2020 General Election, the ECJ set a $1.5 million cap for individual candidates from a single donor and $31.5 million for donations to political parties.

Knowingly accepting contributions from impermissible donors is punishable by a fine of up to $3 million or imprisonment for up to 12 months.

But Chang said if the country intends to keep the political culture alive and well among the emerging middle class, and the political class, public funding of campaigns is necessary.

“They tend to be educated people. If we don’t allow for the level of public financing in a more open way than we have now, you’ll never be able to recruit those people,” he said.

“You’re asking a young lawyer who’s succeeded in his, maybe, 10 years of practice, telling him to come in the House for a salary of which he’d maybe earn on one contract. It’s ridiculous,” he charged.

Chang said parties ask young professional candidates to build up political support but said that they are unlikely to get this in their first term.

He said as a result, and with the way the law is structured; a political party has to extend itself to support the candidate until larger contributions come in.

Disclosing that after his first month as a parliamentarian he was paid what was akin to a day’s salary in his medical practice, he said it is difficult to recruit young professionals without public funding.

“You find that there are individuals who contribute to both parties - if they are big enough. Others feel they’re in a sensitive post. They don’t want to announce their politics, but you need public contribution to run the election … .

“So it’s not [whether] the law is wrong or not. You need to examine now at this stage in the Government whether the law we have is appropriate … . You’re not going to get any young professional whether in a corporation or privately to just run to politics,” he said.

Bunting, who served as a Cabinet minister during the periods the legislation was being drafted and who was a commissioner of the ECJ then, said the legislation was not intended to stop where it did.

“It took a lot to just introduce it at all. We never expected that that would be the final version of it, but at least it was a start,” he told Gleaner editors and reporters.

He said at the time, he argued that all donations over a certain threshold should be made public but said he did not get support with the push because the legislation was new.

The fear, he said, was making the legislation “too radical”, and in doing so, create incentives for candidates to circumvent it.

“So [we said] let us introduce something that it should be fairly easy to comply with, and then having gotten people accustomed to this kind of reporting, the registration of parties, then over time, you can perfect it, and I think that was the intention.

“It’s been now over 10 years. I think it may be time to look again. I, certainly, am in favour of more transparency but not unilaterally because that will put you at a disadvantage,” the leader of opposition business in the Senate and opposition spokesman on citizen security and productivity said.

He said donors fear being targeted if donations are made public beyond disclosure to the ECJ.

He said the competitive disadvantage comes in when one party discloses its donors while the other party withholds its list.

Pressed on whether Jamaicans have a right to know who funds political parties, he said the matter ought to be legislated before this could be done.

“I agree, but this must be done by law. We need to make the law say that,” he said.

Meanwhile, PNP General Secretary Dr Dayton Campbell indicated that the party is prepared to do what the law requires when quizzed on whether the Opposition would make public its election donors.

“We’ll do whatever the law requires of us. We are law-abiding,” said Campbell.

Challenged that the position indicates that the PNP was only prepared to do the bare minimum under the law, Campbell said: “We didn’t order any paraphernalia to circumvent the laws. We ordered the paraphernalia to be ready for an election that we don’t know when it will be called. We did not know whether or not it would be called before March.”

He was referring to campaign spending that occurred outside of the official campaign period.

Political parties and candidates are required to submit expenditure reports during the campaign period and final disclosure reports within six weeks of election day to the ECJ.

kimone.francis@gleanerjm.com