Editorial | Transparent party cash

Although voting may not take place for months, officially Jamaica is in an election campaign period.

That, under the law, is the period beginning “the day following the last of the period 54 months from the commencement of the term of office of the government”.

Simply put, once the prime minister doesn’t announce an earlier general election, the campaign period begins six months before the term of his administration ends.

After the 2020 general election – which the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) won in a landslide 12 days earlier – the new Parliament was inaugurated on September 15. Cabinet ministers took their oaths of office on September 11, four days before the legislators were sworn-in.

What’s the point of all this?

During this period, and up to 24 hours before the polls open for Jamaicans to cast their ballots in the general election, the island’s two big political parties and their candidates will be at liberty to between them raise, and spend, up to J$3.15 billion on their campaigns.

How does this break down?

Each party is allowed to raise, and spend $630 million on its campaign. That means a combined amount for the governing Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) and the People’s National Party (PNP), of J$1.26 billion.

Additionally, each election candidate is allowed to spend up to J$15 million on her or his campaign. With 63 constituencies (candidates) that translates to J$945 million per party, or a combined J$1.89 billion. It is to be noted, however, that the J$15 million that a candidate is allowed to spend includes any money received from the central party.

INDIRECT EXPENDITURE

If candidates don’t specifically receive funds from their parties they can, on its face, still benefit from indirect expenditure by the central organisation in support of their candidacies – and on the campaign in general.

And unless the donors (they can give up to J$1.5 million to candidates and J$31.5 million to parties) volunteer the information, voters, given an opaque reporting system, won’t know who contributed this money.

The situation, however, can potentially get even worse than is immediately apparent.

While during the campaign period, donations of J$250,000 and above have to be reported to the Electoral Commission of Jamaica (ECJ), this limited disclosure is not required prior to the campaign period, although registered political parties are supposed to annually file their audited accounts with the ECJ. It is possible, therefore, for parties and candidates to build up their campaign war chests and do a substantial part of their spending, such as purchasing election paraphernalia, ahead of the official campaign period.

There is also another potential loophole for parties and candidates to exploit. They are not required to maintain receipts, and therefore records, for expenditure, which include in-kind contributions, of under J$10,000. So, engaging in small purchases can be a way of further circumventing an already porous mechanism.

PURCHASE ‘DEMOCRACY’

The upshot of all this is the possibility of deep-pocketed special interest groups and individuals being able to purchase the ‘democracy’ they want, or having undue influence on the formulation of public policy. Voters, in the process, remain in the dark.

For the 2020 elections, the parties, based on published ECJ, the parties combined, raised just shy of J$300 million (JLP J$176 million; PNP J$122.5 million) for their campaigns. This did not include contributions to individual candidates.

Of 14 companies contacted in the aftermath of the ECJ report - the parties have 180 days to file campaign expenditure accounts – eight confirmed contributions amounting to no more than eight per cent of reported total campaign revenue.

In 2016, before the campaign reporting law came into effect 10 members of the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica (PSOJ) voluntarily made public contributions to the two parties, totalling J$144 million.

This ought not to be a voluntary act.

It must be the law, especially if politicians are serious about rebuilding faith in Jamaica’s democracy, reversing the island’s dismally low voter turn-outs (38 per cent in the 2020 general election), and changing the perception of Jamaicans (around 80 per cent) that they live in a highly corrupt country.

Shortly after he became president of the PNP, Mark Golding promised that the PNP would publish its annual accounts, returning to an experiment of a dozen years earlier. He has reneged on that promise, apparently believing that it would be a mortal sin if voters knew that the party’s coffers were less than healthy.

And like the JLP, the PNP now holds that donor funds would dry up if identities of contributors were revealed.

We do not agree. In any event, the larger issue is democracy. And its wellbeing.