Political scientist Dr Bishnu Ragoonath is calling on Government to reform the Representation of the People’s Act (RPA), using proposals drafted by the Elections and Boundaries Commission.
His comments came as the deadline for the submission of election expenses ended on Wednesday.
Under existing laws, the candidate has a $50,000 limit on their personal expenditure for campaign expenses. However, most times, candidates spend way in excess of this figure but the EBC has no way of verifying whether expenses were incurred by the candidate or the party.
In an interview, Ragoonath revealed that tabulations were being done to determine how much each party spent on media advertisements. That, however, was just a fragment of the overall cost incurred by the party, he said.
Ragoonath also hoped the new Government would put campaign finance reform on the legislative agenda before the 2017 Tobago House of Assembly elections were held.
“The EBC has drafted proposals for reform of the RPA, those proposals need to be seriously considered by the Government. They can do it in a piecemeal manner so at least we have the proper legislation in place before 2017,” Ragoonath said.
He said that political parties have always been reluctant to divulge party financing because it allows them flexibility.
“Political parties don’t want to be constrained by rules and regulations which limit how things happen. Some financiers may not want to have their names associated with a political party,” he said. He noted that even if figures were provided, there was little or no way to validate their accuracy.
Ragoonath said based on the Code of Ethical Conduct and the Council of Responsible Political Behaviour, leaders of all the political parties have pledged to have their accounts audited and presented to the council within three months of the general election. Ragoonath said it is left to be seen whether the parties would comply.
EBC’s chief elections officer Ramesh Nanan admitted that the EBC had no way of determining whether candidates spent more than the required limit for their campaign.
A total of 79 out of 132 electoral candidates were supposed to file their personal expenditure report with the EBC on Wednesday.
Nanan said the EBC would assess the reports by perusing receipts.
Saying there is a difference between candidate’s expenditure and political party financing, Nanan said: “When candidates submit their receipts and bills, the EBC has no way of verifying whether the cost of the campaign was footed by the party or by the electoral candidate.”
Since campaign finance reform had not yet been realised, there was no legislation to limit how much political parties spent on election campaigns, Nanan said.
As such, the EBC has no choice but to deal only with candidate’s expenditure and not political party financing, he added.
The People’s National Movement, United National Congress and Independent Liberal Party have been tight-lipped on their actual expenditure in the last election.