The ECJ: award and campaign financing

Martin Henry

May I offer my own congratulations and commendation to the now chairmanless Electoral Commission of Jamaica? Hopefully, it can be accepted without landing anyone in hot water!

Erstwhile Chairman Dr Herbert Thompson has resigned under pressure from the Opposition applied by both JLP leadership contenders Andrew Holness and Audley Shaw, and by elements of media and civil society, for having accepted from the governing PNP an award on behalf of the commission for services rendered to the electoral system.

Dr Thompson, as an independent member of the ECJ and its chairman, committed the kind of 'breach' the media routinely commit each year in their members attending appreciation functions put on by Government and accepting awards from private-sector companies when media are duty-bound to investigate and criticise both and to not give the impression of being in the back pocket of either.

While regretting Dr Thompson's unnecessary resignation, I congratulate the ECJ for the sterling work it has patiently done over the last 34 years to clean up Jamaica's electoral system. A paragraph from this newspaper's editorial last Thursday (September 26) captures the point well: "Over three decades, starting when Jamaica was close to a civil war and its elections were characterised by intimidation and vote-rigging, the ECJ and its predecessor, the Electoral Advisory Committee (EAC), have transformed Jamaica's voting system to one that is close to, if not of, international best practices. That this happened was contributed to, in large measure, by the bipartisan effort of the JLP and the People's National Party."

The Observer made its point even more forcefully: "Of a truth, the ECJ is eminently worthy of every praise that Jamaica can heap upon that organisation for its work in transforming the electoral landscape from a corrupted, vile and fraudulent system to today's respectable and believable electoral machinery."

In commemorating their 75th and 70th anniversary, respectively, this year, both the PNP and the JLP are giving their own versions of the country's modern political history. Some of which simply ain't so, like the PNP oft-repeated claim that Norman Manley is the father of independent Jamaica. In this age of

DNA testing, if sole paternity must be assigned, that designation unquestionably belongs to Norman's cousin, Busta, if the facts of history are to bear any weight on the matter. But that's another story.

It was under a PNP government, but not strictly speaking a PNP solo achievement, that the two warring political tribes in 1979 agreed to a cessation of hostilities for the formation of the EAC to take charge of electoral matters. The committee would have two members each from each of the two major political parties and three independent members appointed by the governor general with the joint approval of the parties. It was thus that Herbert Thompson was appointed one of the independent members of the ECJ.

The EAC-ECJ is one of the great success stories of minimal bipartisan agreement in Jamaica's two-party political history. Following cowboy actor John Wayne's advice to "speak low, speak slow, and don't say too much", the EAC-ECJ worked by the principle of consensus decisions and the Parliament adopted the tradition of accepting its reports by acclamation without debate.

The EAC-ECJ has cleaned the political system of electoral violence, fraud, corruption and intimidation, since by the regulations progressively adopted over the years, no candidate will be allowed to win a seat in Parliament if any electoral irregularity can be demonstrated.

The operational arm of the commission, the Electoral Office of Jamaica, is equipped to deliver free and fair elections and has become a model for many other countries.

OK TO SAY 'THANK YOU'

Despite the acknowledged "infelicities" in the PNP's letter of invitation and the infelicity of the chairman not advising the other independent members of the proposed award, it is perfectly understandable that in a moment of commemoration and celebration, one or other, or both, of the political parties may wish to say thank you to the ECJ for its services to the nation.

That the whole matter was somewhat badly handled can be readily conceded. How it is inimical to JLP interests is harder to see. The party may simply have missed its own opportunity to say thank you to an impartial national political institution on the occasion of its own 70th anniversary commemoration and celebrations in July.

In any case, if Herbert Thompson had wished to tough it out, it seems to me that with the PNP and JLP disagreeing over his continued chairmanship, it would have been left up to fellow independent members and the governor general to decide his fate.

But why should Gentleman Thompson bother? More and more, upstanding citizens are getting reluctant to serve in public capacities and expose themselves to vicious attacks. The Observer editorial question, "Is Mr Holness institutionalising political tribalism?", is worthy of consideration. Except that it would not be so much "institutionalising" as strengthening what the EAC-ECJ has worked so assiduously to weaken.

Even as Chairman Thompson walked, the ECJ recommendations on campaign financing were tabled in the Parliament. Departing from three decades plus of tradition, opposition MPs have chosen to subject this ECJ report to debate. We must recall that each political party in Parliament has two representatives on the ECJ and that the report reaching Parliament is a consensus report.

As The Gleaner reported last Wednesday, "Members of the parliamentary Opposition yesterday ripped into aspects of the report of the Electoral Commission of Jamaica (ECJ) on campaign financing, forcing Leader of Government Business Phillip Paulwell to promise that a joint select committee would be established to examine the proposed campaign-financing legislation."

The member for South West St Catherine, Everald Warmington, framed his attack as a defence of the poor. "We cannot impose any more burden on the poor people of this country . ... I cannot, with any clear conscience, support anything that will put more burden on the poor ... . I have no interest in asking poor farmers, handcart drivers, vendors, and shopkeepers to finance my expenses," he said.

Just like how any proposal to improve governance by putting more resources into the facilities and functions of Parliament is greeted with wide-scale public hostility (like the ones that a World Bank assessment team has recently made and which I will pick up another time), so is the proposal for any state financing of political campaigns.

But let us reframe the issue. Who is financing political parties and political candidates now? What do these financiers want? What do they get when the party and people they back come to power? How might undercover financing be hurting the poor more through corruption and the misallocation of resources to repay financing favours?

LEVEL PLAYING FIELD

National Integrity Action, to which I belong, supports the ECJ recommendations. As the ECJ itself notes in its report: "The commission recognises that state funding may act as a valuable tool in protecting political equality of opportunity and electoral competition, thus creating a level playing field by enabling new and small parties and persons of modest means to offer themselves as candidates and compete with parties or candidates who are dominant and, perhaps, are more financially viable.

"Further, the commission is of the view that state funding can act as a mechanism to restrict or limit the influence of money from illegal sources and its potential for corrupting and, ultimately, distorting the democratic process. State funding can serve as a hedge against candidates feeling obliged to turn to illegal sources or becoming obligated to certain permissible donors. State funding also allows for greater demands for transparency and accountability from candidates and, as a result, enhances confidence in the electoral and governance process."

Warmington and Daryl Vaz (member for West Portland) notwithstanding, the reasonable costs of government must be met from the resources of the State, to which all citizens, rich and poor alike, should contribute.

OCG not infallible

The Office of the Contractor General has finally reported on its investigations into the matter of shops built in the Spaldings Market and the bidding process for a supplier of 360MW of additional power to the national grid.

The DPP, to whom the Spaldings Market case was referred for possible criminal prosecution, has ruled that there is no basis on which to proceed.

Phillip Paulwell, the minister of energy, whose actions in the bidding process were implicated as improper, has made a statement to Parliament in his own defence (the OCG reports to Parliament, not to media). Paulwell's statement has been published as a full-page advertisement.

Despite commitments to the fight against corruption, there are even more fundamental commitments to the principles of natural justice: innocent until proven guilty; the right to speak in one's own defence; the right to question one's accusers; the right to call witnesses to one's defence; the right to examine both charge and evidence brought against one; rule of law specificity of charge; and not having to defend oneself against vague extralegal concoctions like being labelled "politically corrupt".

The OCG is a vital element in the fight against corruption, but any view that the office is unquestionably impeccable and unimpeachable in its pronouncements, as seems widely held by the public, is wrong. The voice of the OCG is not the voice of God.

And one more thing: Government is getting more and more mired in its own anti-corruption rules of procedure, such as those which tied up Richard Azan when he sought to fast-track delivering necessary services to his constituents, for which they are now everlastingly grateful. The whole system of procurement and managing state projects is in need of deep and urgent review.

Martin Henry is a communication specialist. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and medhen@gmail.com.