Dear Editor,

It must now be accepted that Jamaica is in electioneering mode.

Under the provisions of the constitution the general parliamentary election can be no longer than seven months away. Under the Representation of the People Act (RPA), the campaign period legally begins six months before the end of the life of Parliament, that is the date in September when the current Parliament’s term will come to an end. All or nearly all the intended candidates of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) and the People’s National Party (PNP) have been identified and presented to the electorate.

Although the RPA does not make it clear that individual candidates are subject to the rules relating to political campaign financing before the formal nomination, it is in the interest of effective implementation of the principles and policies of campaign finance monitoring that the candidates as well as the political parties should commit themselves to observe the provisions of the Act, at least from the beginning of the statutory reporting period which is about to commence.

This means that during this period not only the political parties but all candidates should observe the provisions of the Act, which require contributions by people who have government contracts be disclosed and that no contributions should be accepted from public bodies or entities which are operating illegally or through agents or intermediaries or under false names.

If the principle is accepted that the requirements of the Act should be applicable at least during the defined pre-election period, then all contributions made during this period should be recorded and reported and the appropriate declarations made by the contributor.

All candidates are required by the RPA, within six weeks after the election day, to have their agents make their returns to the returning officer of the contributions received and their expenditure. It is, therefore, necessary for the candidates to commence immediately to make the necessary arrangements for compliance.

After the election, each returning officer is required by the RPA to publish a summary of the returns in a daily newspaper and to afford the public an opportunity to inspect them.

It is notable that previous summaries have been published by the Electoral Commission of Jamaica (ECJ) rather than the returning officers. Most surprisingly, there are candidates who have stated that they had no contribution, which is virtually impossible since contributions in goods or services should be documented and included.

Most astounding is that returns have been published by the ECJ stating, in relation to some candidates, “N/A”, which means “not applicable”, although the RPA grants no exemption to any candidate and so every donation, whether in cash or kind, should be stated. If there is the extraordinary situation of no donations of any kind being received by a candidate, only then should “none” be stated.

Lloyd Barnett

Attorney-at-law

dr.lgbarnett@gmail.com