The Tribune

By EARYEL BOWLEG

Tribune Staff Reporter

ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

PRIME Minister Philip “Brave” Davis said regulating campaign finance is fraught with “difficulties”, partly because it could require that public funds be used to finance political campaigns.

“You will find the alternative to campaign financing and regulating it is a requirement that perhaps the public purse should fund election campaigns,” he told reporters when asked about his administration’s failure to advance various progressive matters outlined in the PLP’s Blueprint for Change.

“If you check and benchmark where campaign financing is the law in various countries, you’ll find that a part of the access to campaign financing is from the public purse. Should I put that on the payment people at this time? I don’t know.”

Some countries have extensive public funding for political campaigns. However, some that limit who can make political donations, such as the United States and the United Kingdom, do not have a state funding system.

Mr Davis said loopholes would always exist, allowing people to get around campaign finance regulations. He suggested he would not pass a superficial law without addressing deeper challenges.

Despite past promises, he reiterated that various matters of transparency and accountability are not a priority for his administration.

“When I walk and talk to Bahamian people, meet their families, they don’t speak about the Freedom of Information Act,” he said. “They don’t speak about campaign financing laws. What they speak to me about is relief from cost of living, action on crime, access to healthcare, wanting opportunities. They want new businesses. They need to be able to understand what we are doing for those. So those have risen for my priorities.”

Mr Davis also said his administration has not abandoned its commitment to anti-corruption legislation. He noted the government passed an Ombudsman Bill, which is a part of the anti-corruption legislative regime. That law has not been implemented. 

“The attorney general is now reviewing, bringing that into force, and we are also benchmarking and working with the International Law Development Association, which is assisting them in looking at benchmarking the various anti-corruption laws around the world so that we can adopt what is more suitable for us,” he said.

As opposition leader in 2020, Mr Davis said Dr Hubert Minnis’ failure to fulfil his campaign finance promise proved his election victory was built on “empty promises and political expediency”.

After Dr Minnis said he had years to introduce campaign finance legislation, Mr Davis said: “That he’s saying ‘we have seven years in which to bring the legislation’ speaks to his hypocrisy and his true ways.”