PARLIAMENTARIANS on Tuesday reached a stalemate in accepting an amendment to three bills made by the Senate last Friday giving magistrates more discretion in penalising individuals who breach electoral laws.

The Bills amending the Representation of the People Act, the Kingston and St Andrew Corporation Act and the Parish Councils Act were each passed with one amendment after several members in the Senate raised objections to the mandatory nature of the penalties the Electoral Advisory Commission had prescribed for breaches.

The bill mandates that persons who vote openly in elections should be subject to a fine of between $20,000 and $80,000, plus imprisonment with or without hard labour of three to five years.

But Leader of Government Business in the Senate A J Nicholson, the attorney general, said the penalty should be either a fine or imprisonment and not both, with an upper limit of $80,000 for the fines. According to Nicholson, who was backed by all senators present, government and opposition alike, with the exception of leader of Opposition Business Senator Anthony Johnson, the trend in the Commonwealth was to move away from mandatory sentences.

Bringing the amendments before the Lower House Tuesday, Leader of Government Business Dr Peter Phillips, who had from the onset expressed discomfort with breaking the tradition of rubber-stamping proposals from the Commission, said he had been “advised by the Attorney General’s Chambers that the Electoral Commission is not averse to such an amendment”.

Opposition Member Karl Samuda, however, blocked the call to approve the amendments claiming that this was not in fact the case.

“I must say as a member of the commission I’m not aware of the agreement to accept the amendment. It might have come from a member of the Commission but it has not come from the Commission.

“We are breaking new ground and we must recognise it; this is the first time since the establishment of the Electoral Advisory Committee that either House is seeking to amend a recommendation brought to this House by the Committee now Commission,” Samuda said.

Phillips, who said there was merit to Samuda’s argument, proposed that the debate be suspended to allow for consultation between the members of the commission resuming debate on the matter.

“The only urgency is that we need to ensure that there is something in place. We hope to do no violence and we certainly regard the tradition that has been observed by the House as sacrosanct. Let us maintain this tradition by allowing those consultations to take place and the Commission could advise us,” Phillips advised.

The Senate last Friday in a landmark move amended the proposals made by the Electoral Advisory Commission (EAC) to facilitate secret voting despite the long-held tradition of accepting proposals from the Commission, because of its tripartite membership.