By Omar Anderson, Gleaner WriterTHE JAMAICA Labour Party (JLP) has challenged the legality of a probe by the Political Ombudsman into reports of massive bribery leading up to the party's deputy leadership race last November.
According to the JLP, the Ombudsman, Bishop Herro Blair, has no authority to probe internal bribery allegations within a political party.
This view was shared by Solicitor General Michael Hylton when The Gleaner contacted him for comment last night.
Following a five-hour emergency meeting of the JLP's Standing Committee on Wednesday night, the party's chairman, Bruce Golding, issued a press release yesterday in which it labelled as "grossly inappropriate," the action of its East Portland caretaker, Dr. Dennis Minott.
Dr. Minott had asked Bishop Blair to investigate allegations of widespread vote-buying during the build-up to the JLP's 60th annual conference held at the National Arena in Kingston.
But the JLP yesterday said it was concerned that a dangerous precedent was being established, under which the Political Ombudsman could claim the right to intervene in internal party disputes, and therefore subvert the mechanisms established within the party for dealing with such matters.
"The Standing Committee, based on legal opinion, is satisfied that the Political Ombudsman has no authority to investigate internal disputes within a political party," the release said.
"His authority is confined to investigating actions which constitute a breach of the Code of Political Conduct or are likely to prejudice good relations between supporters of different political parties."
Against this background, the JLP is contending that the allegations Dr. Minott made do not fall within that ambit.
A BREACH
Section 12, Sub-section 1 of the Political Ombudsman (Interim) Act, 2002, states that the Political Ombudsman shall investigate any action taken by a political party, its members or supporters, where he is of the opinion that such action (a) constitutes or is likely to constitute a breach of any agreement, code or arrangement for the time being in force between or among political parties in Jamaica; or (b) is likely to prejudice good relations between the supporters of various political parties.
Section 14, Sub-section 1 of the same Act also states that "an investigation pursuant to 12 (1) may be undertaken by the Political Ombudsman on his own initiative or on a complaint made to him pursuant to Section 13."
In addition, Section 1 (f) of the Code of Political Conduct, to which both major political parties have signed, states that: "Candidates or others acting on behalf of candidates must not use funds derived from any source, public or private, to improperly influence electoral choices."
Contacted last night, Mr. Hylton said he believes the Political Ombudsman (Interim) Act empowers the Political Ombudsman to investigate perceived political wrong doings between or among parties.
"The intent of the Act and the Political Code of Conduct is to deal with inter-party issues and not issues between people in the same political party," he said.
Mr. Hylton referred to Section 12 (1) (b) of the Act which states that the Ombudsman may initiate an investigation if he thinks, in this case, that the vote-buying issue is likely to prejudice good relations between the supporters of various political parties.
"Unless he thinks what he's been asked to investigate could negatively affect relations between persons different from political parties, it would appear to me it (probably) is not covered by the legislation," he told The Gleaner.
Meanwhile, the JLP said contact made with East Portland delegates did not yield any evidence that money was paid to delegates "other than the modest amounts normally provided to cover lunch and transportation".
Accordingly, the press release said, the Standing Committee considers as "grossly inappropriate" the actions taken by Dr. Minott in not allowing the party's internal machinery to properly investigate his charges, refusing to provide the party with evidence to substantiate his charges, and referring to an external entity, charges which do not constitute criminal offences, knowing fully well they would be placed in the public domain and could bring the party into disrepute."
The matter has been referred to the JLP's Central Executive which is slated to meet later this month.
