The Role of the Electoral & Boundaries Commission in Barbados.
One of the first principles of achieving good systems of governance requires the establishment of effective institutions which solve issues rather than allowing them to flourish. The problem in Barbados is that many of our institutions fail to meet this requirement as some issues continue to persist. One persistent problem in Barbados is the failure to hold political candidates to account during election periods. Under the Constitution of Barbados, the Electoral & Boundaries Commission (EBC) is the established institution with the responsibility to achieve this task.
Various pieces of legislation allow the EBC to do this, through monitoring and enforcing how political candidates are financed. Laws such as the Representation of the People Act (ROPA), requires that every candidate should present to the Supervisor of Elections accurate election expenses, while another section calls for the names and records of all financial contributions to candidates to be submitted. These electoral funding returns are designed to ensure that candidates stay within the legal spending limit set out in section 48 of ROPA, where they are only allowed to spend 10 BBD per elector.
Managing this process is the Supervisor of Elections who can investigate what they believe are untruths in the candidate’s filings. If false returns were willfully made, the candidate can be convicted under section 7 of the Perjury Act, and they can also be prevented from sitting as a representative in the House of Assembly.
The EBC failing at its job
Given that most persons among us would not recall when a member of the house was charged, convicted or disqualified for false filings, it would appear that members has been completely honest in their declarations leaving no reason for investigations, even when millions are reportedly spent on political campaigns, yet candidate’s filings show their spending to be in the tens of thousands…This does not add up!
Failures in enforcement by the EBC are also evident as many aspects of the law are ignored. Under the Election Offenses and Controversies Act, giving money or gifts, and corruptly giving food, drink or other items to voters in order to influence their vote are criminal offenses. Also, the wearing and giving of tee-shirts is banned. These practices lead to costly electoral campaigns, which can cause politicians to be easily influenced by wealthy persons or businesses who are willing to pay. With this in mind, the EBC must do all it can to prevent these influences from occurring through legal enforcements.
EBC crippled by partisan politics.
Under the Constitution of Barbados, the most senior members of the EBC like the Chairman, are appointed by the governor general under the direction of the prime minister and the involvement of the leader of the opposition for a 5 years’ term. This appointment process means the EBC lacks the ability to effectively hold politician’s feet to the fire due to the political loyalties of the appointees.
EBC in desperate need of reform
Legal reforms must be made to allow the EBC the necessary independence. This can occur through changes in how persons are appointed, which can prevent political interference. The EBC also suffers from insufficient human resources and funding. Although the Constitution of Barbados states that the EBC should be adequately staffed so it can efficiently perform its functions, this staffing however is lacking. This then denies the EBC the ability to achieve the goals set out in the Constitution.
A review of the Barbados Estimates would show that the EBC enjoys a considerable increase in its financing during election years with an estimated 8.8 million BBD. However, this funding is unfortunately reduced to an average of 5.2 million BBD in the post-election years. Since the EBC’s ability to enforce the law relies on financial, technical and human resources, this increase in funding must be maintained for it to accomplish its task.
Jamaica a good regional model for EBC
Jamaica has done an effective job at reform, as their prime minister and leader of the opposition nominate an equal number of selected members to sit on their commission.
Their Commission’s independence is also increased as there is no ministerial control since it reports to an independent body under the oversight authority of an independent committee of Parliament. This independent committee has an equal number of members from both parties with the speaker of the house residing as the chairman. A similar situation in Barbados could allow our EBC the necessary independents it needs to keep politicians in check.
The Jamaican model also allows for their Commission to invest in securities issued or guaranteed by the government, and similar investment approaches could be used locally.
Barbados must do better
If we are to create meaningful national development, we ought to safeguard and improve the democratic foundations in Barbados. Doing this means that we must ensure that the institutions with this responsibility can do so without political interference and funding constraints. With modeled examples like Jamaica leading the way, Barbados too should make the necessary changes that will promote a democratic process that we could all be confident in. As such, the Barbados Integrity Group believes this process could only be done if the EBC fulfills the legal mandate in which it was given.