PARLIAMENT took a step closer to introducing rules guiding political campaign financing, when updated recommendations were tabled in Gordon House on Tuesday, as the House of Representatives ended its summer break.

The recommendations are expected to be debated shortly, and are expected to be treated with the normal propriety reserved for recommendations from the Electoral Commission of Jamaica (ECJ).

The recommendations were originally tabled in November 2011 under the previous government, but were withdrawn by the ECJ and revised in order to reduce the tension built up between the ECJ and Parliamentarians concerned about some of the restrictions being imposed on the political parties and their candidates.

It is not clear whether or not there will be full support for the latest recommendations. However, as both major political parties are represented on the commission and no doubt influenced the recommendations, they are likely to be approved without the animosity which characterised the first debate.

The newly tabled report, dated August 2013, points out that the ECJ revised the recommendations “after consideration of the comments and opinions of members of the House of Representatives and Senate, as expressed in debate”.

Primary among the changes included in the new report are:

Limits on contributions

(1) While the 2011 report had recommended that the contribution/donation from a donor should not exceed $1 million to a single constituency in a campaign period, and $10 million for all candidates and all parties, the new report recommends that the total contribution/donation from a donor in a single campaign should not “exceed ten per cent of the aggregate limit on expenditure to which the candidate is entitled or, in relation to the political party, an amount equal to five per cent of the aggregate limit of the expenditure to which the party is entitled”. However, the political parties’ entitlement will have to be computed on the basis of the number of seats that they are contesting.

(2) The ECJ has replaced recommendations 14 and 15 in the original report with the following:

“(14) At the end of the campaign period every political party and every candidate contesting an election shall submit separately to the Electoral Commission/Director of Elections a consolidated report, in the prescribed form, detailing all contributions/donations received and expenditure incurred with the campaign period. In addition, every candidate shall submit to the Electoral Commission a declaration in the prescribed form stating that, to the best of his her knowledge and belief- (a) No contribution/donation from a person who is not a permissible donor has been accepted by him or her during the campaign period; (b) No anonymous contributions/donations have been accepted by him or her during the campaign period”.

“(15) Upon receipt of a contribution/donation and expenditure report, the Electoral Commission/Director of Elections shall not later than 21 days after receipt of the same, issue the candidate concerned with a certificate stating that the person has complied with the law by submitting the said report and thereafter such contribution/donation and expenditure report shall be treated in accordance with the provisions of the Representation of the People Act”.

In addition, recommendation 17 has now become 16 and 18, which stated that “submission of this report does not relieve a candidate of the responsibility to submit an election expense within eight weeks after Election Day”, has been removed.

Limits on expenditure

In this section, for registered political parties contesting one or more constituencies, campaign expenditure in individual constituencies has been limited to $15 million, a 50 per cent increase over the $10 million previously recommended.

The requirement for each candidate and political party to submit to the commission interim and final campaign expenditure reports, eight days after nomination day and 8-12 weeks after election day, respectively, has been changed to require only a campaign expenditure report within 180 days after an election.

The fine for failing to observe these deadlines have been increased. While it was previously recommended that there be a maximum $5,000 fine for every day exceeding the deadline, and $100,000 per day for a continuing offence after conviction, the new recommendation is for a maximum $25,000 fine for both occasions.

For making false declarations, the penalty remains at a maximum fine of $5 million, or a term of imprisonment not exceeding three years.

The ECJ has also recommended that the deposit from candidates, which is paid to the returning officer on nomination, should be increased to $15,000, instead of the $10,000 which was proposed in the earlier report.

Political parties, affiliate groups and organisations, including the “youth arms”, are required to submit an annual report to the Commission on the amount and nature of all contributions in cash, cheques or kind, expenditures, liabilities and assets.

The report shall detail the full identity, address and occupation of each contributor. The reports shall include all expenditure in excess of $250,000.

Every candidate contesting an election will also be required to submit to the commission a disclosure report, similar to that required of the political parties detailing income and expenditure and all contributions received during the campaign period. If there was no contribution, this must also be declared.

No candidate or political party may receive a contribution later than 180 days after the election day. The Disclosure Committee of the ECJ shall publish its findings within a period of eight weeks after receiving the final report from the political parties.

The ECJ has for some years now been working on the report, commissioned by the JLP, which had promised during the campaign leading up to the 2007 general elections that it would, if elected, enact legislation to reform party and campaign financing — especially since the questionable donation of $31 million to the PNP by Dutch oil trading firm Trafigura Beheer in 2006.

Although candidates are obligated to declare election expenses, there is currently no legislation for campaign financing and, as such, no prerequisite for political parties to have their accounts inspected or to disclose their funding sources.