The Bahamas has been “severely influenced” by money in politics now for over 100 years, and it’s about time somebody does something about it, according to Co-Chairman of the Constitutional Review Commission Paul Adderley.
“We’re trying to do something about the influence that rich men can have or try to have over politicians. Don’t let us fool around with this one in terms of what we’re trying to do,” said Mr. Adderley, who was a guest on Love 97’s “Jones and Company” on Sunday.
The Commission recommends that parliament prescribe controls and limits over donations to political parties, candidates and political campaign expenditure to ensure transparency and accountability in local and national elections and fairness in referendum.
The need to reform campaign finances is something that officials from both major political parties seem to agree on.
In fact, the Progressive Liberal Party promised in its campaign document “Our Plan” to do exactly what the commission is now recommending, although no legislative movements have yet been made in that regard.
The PLP also promised that there would be appropriate penalties for violation of any law that would govern campaign contributions.
Party Chairman Raynard Rigby told The Bahama Journal that the PLP remains committed to reforming the system of campaign donations.
“We believe it goes to the question of ensuring that there’s integrity in the process,” Mr. Rigby said, “ensuring that there is accountability and at the end of the day ensuring that we maintain a system of election that is always fair and transparent.”
Senator Tommy Turnquest, the former leader of the Free National Movement, and present deputy leader Brent Symonette also see wisdom in making the system of campaign donations a transparent one.
“I believe we ought to begin steps to move toward some sort of campaign finance reform,” Senator Turnquest said. “I think there ought to be some transparency and accountability with respect to how political parties receive funding.”
He believes that more qualified people who may not necessarily have a whole lot of money would be attracted to politics.
“I think that the discussion needs to begin in earnest and perhaps we can get to the stage [where we put in place reforms], but I think it ought to be done incrementally,” Senator Turnquest said.
He said there needs to be some system in place to determine whether funds being contributed to political parties were derived from nefarious activities, but Senator Turnquest agreed that it would be difficult to get accurate reports.
“I think it is incumbent upon the leadership of the party, though, to be satisfied as to the source of funding,” he said. “I can tell you in the last general election I was satisfied as to the source of funding of the FNM’s campaign.”
Mr. Symonette believes that there are many other issues associated with the electoral process that also need to be addressed.
“Every election you hear reports that so and so spent so much money,” he said.
“Yes, campaign finance reform is necessary, but we should not take it in isolation. We should look at the whole election process and deal with that in one go. I personally don’t think we have time to do that before the election in 12 months’ time.”
The need for campaign finance reform was highlighted by some political observers in 2004 after Bahamas permanent resident Mohammad Harajchi claimed that he had contributed millions of dollars to the PLP’s 2002 campaign, and claimed he had even done personal favours for some government officials while they were in opposition on the campaign trail.
But Prime Minister Perry Christie strongly challenged his claims and called them untruths.
The issue of money in politics was also underscored during the 2002 campaign as the main political parties staged rallies that became top class productions and purchased expensive and high quality paraphernalia to help energize their campaigns.
By: Candia Dames, The Bahama Journal
