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Election financing legislation needed before 2017 election

DAMIAN Gomez, State Minister for Legal Affairs, has admitted that draft legislation to control donations to fund election campaigns has been languishing – presumably on his desk – for the past three years despite Prime Minister Christie’s commitment to address the issue urgently. Because of this, said Mr Gomez, he could not guarantee that corruption does not occur in government.

We think that it would have been nearer the truth for Mr Gomez to have confirmed that election corruption does exist, rather than try to make Bahamians believe that there is a remote possibility that it does not. Or is Mr Gomez too near the odour to get a whiff of its foul smell? If that is the case, then we suggest he get out among the people who will gladly give him the details about what he would probably rather not hear.

The issue came up when Mr Gomez was asked if government intended to introduce laws to control election contributions in time for the 2017 election. Mr Gomez said he would try to push it, but he had no “expectations one way or the other”.

He said there was ignorance even among Cabinet members about where the PLP gets its money. This might be true of some Cabinet members — although we doubt it— but it certainly is not true of all.

“I’m a member of the Cabinet and I don’t know who all gives money,” he said. “I may suspect but if you ask me to prove it I can’t. From the party, I got $5,000 the last time. I didn’t consider that significant in the scheme of things, but in comparison some people got considerable funds from the party (before the last election).”

Why even Prime Minister Christie has admitted that the practice of politicians using money to persuade voters has deteriorated to “repugnant” and sometimes “criminal” levels over the past 15 years.

And yet, the draft of a law to control the buying of elections to prevent this criminality has been languishing for lack of action for so long that it now needs redrafting, according to Mr Gomez. Does this mean that we are to have another “bought” election? An election with $100 notes wrapped up in yellow T-shirts to entice voters to mark their X next to the sign of the crab – a crab that even when it does the crab walk slithers sideways.

“We are living a lie to just continue to allow this current system that we’re operating under to exist because you know and I know, and everyone else knows that a lot of things are happening, where you’re taking advantage of all sorts of opportunities if you’re the government and it places people at a significant disadvantage and that’s not how a democracy functions,” Mr Christie told a Parliamentary Conclave two months after the 2012 election when his party had won the government. “The only way (reform) is going to work is if parliamentarians agree that there is a compelling urgency to be more accountable in what we’re doing, more transparent in what we’re doing.”

Even the Prime Minister admits the “compelling urgency” and yet draft legislation is still “languishing” as we approach another election with the prospects of even more corruption.

On the floor of the House in July, 2013 FNM MP for Montagu Richard Lightbourn told members that there was public concern at the report that billionaire fashion designer Peter Nygard had donated $5m to the PLP’s election campaign. He said it was speculated that Mr Nygard, a resident in the Bahamas, was expecting certain approvals in return from the government.

“If I give a political party $5m you are looking for something in return and it is evident. And no doubt his shopping list would include citizenship, assistance with the acquisition of the sea beds surrounding his property at Nygard Cay and the stem cell research bill,” said Mr Lightbourn.

Adding to the speculation was the video after the PLP had won the 2012 election announcing that “Nygard takes Bahamas Back”. It showed ministers going to his compound after the election,“bowing and shaking hands, how does that look?” asked Long Island MP Loretta Butler-Turner.

“By his own statements and publications,” said Mr Lightbourn, “he made it appear to all and sundry that he has the government squarely in his pocket.”

Mr Nygard was quick to deny the allegations. Also the “victory” video was taken down with haste.

“I did not spend $5m financing the government at all – I did not do that,” Mr Nygard protested.

“They made a mistake. I spent $5m searching for the stem cell medicine – that is about how much I invested into the doctors who actually discovered this work at SCAT. That is where the $5m went,” Mr Nygard explained.

A similar issue came up 17 years ago when the late Paul Adderley, former Attorney General, gave a speech on political reform, revealing that the Kerzner organisation had donated $50,000 to the PLP’s election campaign.

It was Mr Adderley who earlier had tried to block the Kerzner organisation from investing in The Bahamas. He threatened that if Sol Kerzner signed an agreement with the Ingraham government, when his PLP government returned to power in 1997, it would cancel the agreement one year before it came into effect. By then, he said, Kerzner’s company would have already spent $300m. Fortunately, the PLP lost that election, Mr Ingraham signed the agreement, and Atlantis restored The Bahamas’ international reputation as a tourist resort.

In a speech on election reform in 1998, Mr Adderley revealed that Kerzner International had donated $50,000 to the PLP election campaign. This he knew as a fact. Instead of leaving the matter there to make his point that foreigners should stay out of Bahamian politics, he ventured into the unknown. If the PLP got $50,000 in opposition, said Mr Adderley, then how much did the FNM get as the government? Mr Adderley accused Kerzner International of an “obscene” act.

His wicked seed of doubt had been sown. He moved on in his speech. And so did The Tribune. We wanted to know how much Kerzner International had in fact given the FNM, and so we asked questions. When the facts came out not only did Mr Adderley look foolish, but his party had committed a “repugnant” act, according to Prime Minister Christie’s recent assessment of election practices.

Kerzner International did not go to the PLP to offer them a donation as an election bribe as suggested by Mr Adderley. Rather the PLP had gone, begging bowl in hand, to extort a donation from Kerzner International. The FNM got no donation because, unlike the PLP, they did not ask for one.

We now wonder what role the Chinese will play in the 2017 election. It is important that Mr Gomez start moving mountains now to get election reform in place before the 2017 election.

Comments

sheeprunner12 9 years, 1 month ago

Maybe Neko Grant can put some fire under Damien Gomez's sleepy ass

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