Campaign Finance Reform
“I’m against very wealthy people…influencing elections, but as long as it is doable I’m going to do it” – Sheldon Adelson, American Billionaire and notorious Republican Party financier.
The above quotation highlights a significant barrier which continues deprive average citizens of a more substantive democracy.
With the increasing cost of political campaigns and wealthy donners seeking influence over government policies, special attention must be paid to the financing of these campaigns. In Barbados, regrettably, the necessary legal requirements needed to assess the flow of economic resources to political campaigns are inadequate, outdated and unenforced.
International and regional best practices which can remedy this situation stipulates that by law political parties be regulated. This regulation occurs through registration of political parties with electoral commissions as seen in the United Kingdom and other developed Commonwealth countries like Australia.
A similar approach in Barbados would be useful as currently, candidates can circumvent existing legislation which fails to sufficiently regulate political parties. Therefore, Barbados should broaden the legal and administrative scope of its Electoral and Boundaries Commission by requiring political parties be registered with the EBC. This is registration would allow for a level of financial disclosure coupled the ability to provide regulatory scrutiny and penalties.
These mechanisms could limit the influence of “big money” in our elections which lessens the potential for distorted electoral and policy outcomes due to corruption. To achieve this, the contributions, assets and liabilities over a determined threshold should be declared by the political party. These declarations should be accompanied by the full names, addresses, occupations and nature of business, of donners to show the sources behind funding. Additionally, total income and expenditure statements should also be declared to give regulators the necessary oversight to determine inaccuracies in filings.
For transparency purposes, specific disclosure information should also be available for public access so voters can make more informed voting decisions.
Further, attempts at reform should reject the bizarre American notion which equates money to mean speech which then allows for unfettered amounts of money to be funneled into political campaigns. Therefore, large donations from individuals or companies should be barred by contribution limits to prevent select, wealthy individuals from potentially co-opting electoral and policy outcomes.
The effectiveness of these regulations would largely be determined by the ability to apply regulatory and compliance scrutiny through the auditing of political parties. Auditing could verify the accuracy of financial disclosure statements and provide the ability to investigate whether impermissible donations were made.
Since compliance is presently a problem with our existing legislation, enforcement mechanisms are vital and should be used in the event of non-compliance. Criminal and administrative penalties to force compliance would be the final addition in holding political parties to account. Penalties should be levied against the party and party officials for failing to disclose timely and accurate filings, along with allowing and retaining donations from impermissible sources.
Restricting the influence of private interest in elections and the likelihood of corrupt practices in government makes state funding of political campaigns an attractive endeavor. Given wealthy, private interest are biased and likely aim for certain outcomes, state funding can offset these interest given funds would be distributed impartially. Candidates total reliance on private donations increases the risk their allegiance to wealthy donners rather than citizens. Therefore, increasing current subventions under the Parliament (Administration) Act 1989, could assist in preventing quid pro quo practices between donners and politicians.
Further restriction of interest that could outweigh those of the average citizen would also require the regulation of foreign donations. With the financial influence of states such as China, Taiwan and Venezuela who within the region, the sovereignty and the legitimacy of our electoral outcomes could be jeopardized. Therefore, only donations from the Barbadian diaspora should be permitted and those donations should also have threshold limits. With regional counter-parts like Jamaica having already instituted many of these measures, the Barbadian government should follow their example. In relations to Jamaica’s legislation, the General Secretary of the Organization of American State, Luis Almagro Lemes, declared “I think what Jamaica is doing is a very substantial step that … other Latin American and Caribbean countries will have to replicate in the near future”.
Elections after all are the foundation of the democratic process and should not be bought or sold. We must therefore safeguard the credibility of political participation in the interest of a healthy democracy and good governance by taking the necessary steps towards campaign finance reform.