POLITICAL PARTIES are unwilling to ask the public to fund their election campaigns because of fears that there could be a hostile backlash from the electorate, says Jamaica Labour Party Senator, Bruce Golding.
Addressing participants at a symposium looking at elections in Jamaica, Senator Golding argued that any political party which seeks to secure public funds for this purpose could reap the consequences in a rejection at the polls.
PUBLIC PURSE
"To go to the voters and say to them, we are going to dip into the public purse to assist political parties and to assist candidates is not something that I think will endear you to the voter," he said at the function, which was held at the Hilton Kingston Hotel.
The symposium, which was organised by the Carter Center and the Department of Government at the University of the West Indies, Mona, looked at elections in Jamaica, including the thorny issue of political campaign financing.
Senator Golding said political parties were also unwilling to have the state fund their campaigns, because this was likely to carry with it restrictions and regulations as to how the money is donated and spent.
"As difficult as it is for political parties to go out there and raise money, I get the feeling that this is one area where the parties think that a free market is better than a regulated market," said the Opposition Senator.
In his presentation Senator Golding also raised concerns that political parties were not legally recognised entities in the Jamaican Constitution and called for the anomaly to be addressed, as part of any attempt to deal with the issue of campaign and political financing.
KEY ROLE
Larry Noble, executive director of the United States-based Carter Center for Responsive Politics, said a free and independent press, as well as civic groups, had a key role to play in applying pressure to the Government to implement political and campaign finance reform.
Jennifer McCoy, Director for the Americas Programme at the Center, gave an overview, in her presentation, of different approaches employed to party and campaign financing in various countries.
One of the approaches, she said Jamaica should consider, is to put limits on donations and spending. She said many countries in Latin America prohibited foreign contributions, donations from government contractors and donations from anonymous sources.
