A new era in our political history

' Tackling rampant criminality'

IN PARLIAMENT

■ Ria Taitt

Political Editor

PARTY financiers and other people contributing $50,000 and more to political parties will soon be required to publicly declare their contributions.

This is one of the requirements of the long-awaited and long-promised Campaign Finance Reform legislation which was tabled in the House of Representatives by Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley yesterday.

Another significant provision is that all registered political parties will be entitled to receive State funding with the Elections and Boundaries Commission (EBC) responsible for the administration of the system of allocation and payment of the funds from the Consolidated Fund.

The Prime Minister said the bill would represent a new era in the country's political history.

'It is part of this Government's anti-crime plan. It is tied to the objectives of our Public Procurement legislation, and it underscores our strategic focus on brazenly tackling money laundering, fraud, corruption and rampant criminality in this country,' he said.

The Prime Minister said the bill proposed the imposition of a duty upon the executive officers of registered political parties to account for funding through audits, the filing of returns and the provision of statements of accounts.

The bill also proposes the regulation of the sources of donations and the process for receiving them.

For this purpose, a National Election Campaign Fund will be established and a specified category of people and entities would be permitted to contribute to a political party and candidate of their choice.

This category would include all citizens of T&T who are 18 years and older, citizens of the diaspora abroad, trade unions, friendly societies, NPOs, building societies and domestic companies.

A class of non-permissible donors such as foreign governments, agents of those governments, entities engaged in illegal activities and State bodies will also be established. The bill also provides for election advertisements, stating that they must be authorised by a registered party or candidate and must contain the statement setting out the name and address of the promoter.

Link between Govt contracts and party contributions monitored With respect to tendering for Government contracts, the bill provides that where a person, company or other entity makes a contribution of more than $50,000 to a registered political party or candidate, and within two years before making that contribution, had entered into a Government contract of over $2 million, it shall be declared to the commission no later than 14 days after making the contribution.

Noting that in many countries financiers have been accused of contributing to election campaigns for the sole purpose of unfairly benefiting from a reciprocal arrangement with successful candidates, the Prime Minister said the current electoral laws in T&T did not punish political parties for the misuse and misapplication of funding which creates the opportunity for corruption and money laundering, nor did it place an obligation on financiers of political parties and candidates to disclose the fact of their contributions to the public.

'The current law does not regulate an incumbent Government's access to State resources before and during an election campaign period,' he noted, adding that this loophole allowed an opportunity to supplement a candidate's resources with State resources.

The bill proposed to expand the remit of the EBC by establishing a division to be known as the Office of the Registrar of Political Parties responsible for the carrying out of specified administrative functions, and duties and to establish a Register of Political Parties, the PM explained.

Not another Cambridge Analytica The Prime Minister said the country must exercise great caution in order to safeguard its democracy.

'We simply cannot afford another Cambridge Analytica scandal where Trinidad and Tobago was identified internationally as the epicentre and ground zero starting point of neo-colonial socio-political manipulation through illegal data mining and micro-targeted political campaigning.

'Imagine this kind of activity could have happened to such detriment, but there was no requirement in law to record the actions of individuals or organisations and no accounting of the expenditure,' he said.

The Prime Minister pointed out the illegal data acquisition for the purpose of manipulating the electorate caused Facebook to pay a record US$5 billion penalty in the United States for 'deceiving' users about their ability to keep personal information private, after a year-long investigation into the Cambridge Analytica data breach.

He said the steady rise in the cost of campaigning has consistently stirred significant public concern.

He said the gargantuan sums spent and the real reasons for such spending and the legitimacy of the financing sourced impacted on the public expectation of transparency and accountability and, moreover, the practice of democracy.

'Poor regulation creates ample opportunity for abuse of the democratic process and wrongful financial gain,' he said.

The bill will be referred to a Joint Select Committee, which the PM said, would hopefully report as quickly as possible.

See Page 13

FOLLOWING is a shortened version of the statement delivered by Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley on the Representation of the People (Amendment) Bill, 2020.

MADAM SPEAKER, upon entering Office as Prime Minister, I made a solid commitment to the people of this nation that campaign finance reform legislation will be brought to the Parliament. Historically, successive governments have only spoken on this issue of reform. Today, it brings me great satisfaction to inform this august House that my Government, unlike any other government before us, has the fortitude to fulfil this promise of presenting legislation to address the issue of campaign finance.

Madam Speaker, for me it began early in my tenure as Opposition Leader when as leader of the PNM I was the only political representative of this nation who accepted the invitation of the OAS to attend a working meeting on this issue in Jamaica. All governments and opposition parties in Caricom were invited to receive and critique the OAS draft law on campaign finance reform. The meeting was very well attended but, sadly, only the PNM, in Opposition, represented this country. The ruling party and its many coalition partners were unavailable because they had to celebrate the anniversary of their wonderful 2010 victory at a grand event for this purpose, in Tobago.

There was a follow-up OAS meeting in Barbados and once again the PNM was present, this time represented by Mr Ashton Ford, the general secretary of the Movement. This issue of campaign finance reform was seen as a priority for the OAS, and the organisation kept pushing political entities to embrace the assignment in the hope of getting a regional agreement on a common widely acceptable piece of legislation. Subsequent to the Barbados meeting, the OAS staff came to Trinidad to try and encourage the authorities here to host a meeting on the subject, in furtherance of the effort, but could not interest the then-government in participating or hosting such a regional or national event.

As Opposition Leader then I promised the OAS to keep the issue alive and today it is my first duty to sincerely thank the Attorney General and his very dedicated and hard-working staff for sticking tirelessly to the task of researching and drafting the elements of this very prickly subject in search of something we can all chew upon, if only as guide to modernisation of an ancient legislative construct required to clean up our campaigns and protect as well as embellish our democracy.

Madam Speaker, this bill when passed, after an appropriate period of public consultation, will represent a new era in our political history. It is part of this Government's Anti-Crime Plan, it is tied to the objectives of our Public Procurement legislation, and it underscores our strategic focus on brazenly tackling money laundering, fraud, corruption and rampant criminality in this country.

Madam Speaker, the current law governing this issue is rooted in antiquated provisions of the Representation of the People Act of 1967, which merely provides a simplistic framework for accountability of a candidate's funding. The law bears no resemblance to more progressive legislative reforms in many other countries and is replete with inadequacies.

The current law does not formally recognise political parties as distinct legal entities that can compete against each other in elections and instead provides for political parties to apply to the Elections and Boundaries Commission (EBC) to use a symbol for all its candidates. The financial expenditure reporting requirement under the existing act applies to the party's candidates and independent candidates only. Political parties are not so obliged. The scrutiny therefore, as provided in the current law, is on the candidate rather than the political party itself.

The current law does not facilitate or effectively cater for mergers and coalitions of political parties. It does not oblige political parties, coalitions or merged political parties to disclose and account for their full campaign expenditures to the Elections and Boundaries Commission (EBC) or any regulatory body. It also impractically, even laughably, limits campaign expenditure to $50,000 in the case of a parliamentary election.

The current law does not regulate the role and impact of the media during an election campaign by political parties. The present laissez-faire system operates freely to meet the demands of those able to afford media costs. The reality is that not all political parties and candidates have fair and equitable access to the media for their political campaigns.

The current law does not provide alternative sources of funding, such as public funding, to even the playing field for all interested in political office to present their unique political messages to voters.

The current law does not punish political parties for the misuse and misapplication of funding which creates the opportunity for corruption and money laundering. It does not place an obligation upon financiers of political parties and candidates to disclose the fact of their contributions to the public. This silence is an underlying reason for the public's general distrust as to the 'true' purpose of financial contributions. In many countries financiers have been accused of contributing to election campaigns for the sole purpose of unfairly benefiting from a reciprocal arrangement with successful candidates. The current law does not regulate an incumbent government's access to State resources before and during an election campaign period. This loophole allows an opportunity to supplement a candidate's resources with State resources.

But, Madam Speaker, we must exercise great caution in order to safeguard our democracy. We simply cannot afford another Cambridge Analytica scandal where Trinidad and Tobago was identified internationally as the epicentre and ground zero starting point of neo-colonial socio-political manipulation through illegal data mining and micro-targeted political campaigning.

This country will recall the testimony of whistleblower Christopher Wylie, who admitted to a committee of the House of Commons, United Kingdom, that the data acquisition in Trinidad and Tobago conducted in 2013 under the then-UNC government was illegal and that there was a total disregard for our law. He further stated that the standard Cambridge Analytica method is that you obtain a government contract from the ruling party which funds the party's political work.

Whistleblower Wylie went on to reveal in a published book the insider details of Cambridge Analytica's data mining and psychological manipulation. This method of illegal data acquisition for the purpose of manipulating the electorate has caused Facebook to pay a record US$5 billion penalty in the US for 'deceiving' users about their ability to keep personal information private, after a year-long investigation into the Cambridge Analytica data breach. Cambridge Analytica, upon being exposed, quickly dissolved itself and has since filed for insolvency proceedings but its business models and its trainees are still flourishing in this the age of misinformation, fake news, data theft and manipulation.

Madam Speaker, this Government will do all in its power to prevent any recurrence of the abuse of our laws and abuse of the privacy of our citizens so as to ensure that a Cambridge Analytica fiasco is never repeated.

Madam Speaker, the bill proposed by this Government adopts an egalitarian model of campaign finance laws. The objectives of egalitarianism are political equality, lowered campaigning costs, preserving integrity and credibility of the political system, ensuring transparency through disclosure, non-discrimination and equitable access to public funding. This egalitarian model is the premise of modern election laws of several countries, including the United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand, Kenya, India, Jamaica and the Turks and Caicos Islands.

The Representation of the People (Amendment) Bill, 2020, encapsulates this progressive approach and is modelled upon the legislative scheme set out in Jamaica's Representation of the People Act, amended in 2014 and 2016.

Madame Speaker, in formulating the proposed legislation, the Government had regard to observations of local stakeholders and international experts. Poignant views were found in a series of reports stemming from the early 1970s, including the Wooding Commission on Constitutional Reform (1974), the Law Reform Commission's 'Preliminary Report on Political Parties and The Law, 2007', the Joint Select Committee of the Parliament Appointed to Propose a Legislative Framework to Govern the Financing of Election Campaigns (2014), the Elections and Boundaries Commission policy paper on the 'Registration of Political Parties and Public Campaign Financing, (2015)' and wide stakeholder consultation conducted by the Ministry of the Attorney General and Legal Affairs in its Public Forum on Campaign Finance Reform in Trinidad and Tobago in 2016. Collectively these reports and consultations reiterated the need for legislation to regulate the varying aspects of modern election campaign financing.

The bill proposes to expand the remit of the EBC by establishing a division to be known as the Office of the Registrar of Political Parties responsible for carrying out specified administrative functions and duties and establish a Register of Political Parties. The bill will require any association or body of individual citizens of our country intending to be classed and operated as political parties, to apply to the EBC to be so registered and introduces a system of voluntary and involuntary de-registration of political parties. The bill will also introduce a mechanism for merger and coalition arrangements between or amongst political parties.

Madam Speaker, the bill also proposes the imposition of a duty upon the executive officers of registered political parties to account for funding through audits, the filing of returns and the provision of statements of accounts. The bill proposes the regulation of the sources of donations and the process for receiving them. For this purpose, a National Election Campaign Fund will be established and a specified category of persons and entities would be permitted to contribute to a political party and candidate of their choice. This category will include all citizens of our country who are 18 years and older, citizens in diaspora abroad, trade unions, friendly societies, NPOs, building societies and domestic companies. Thus we provide members of the public with an opportunity to become actively involved in the democratic electoral process. We will, however, guard our elections by establishing a specified class of non-permissible donors such as foreign governments, agents of those governments, entities engaged in illegal activities and State bodies.

Madam Speaker, the Government recognises that citizens are entitled to donate to the political party or candidate of their choice. The bill provides that donations made in excess $50,000 shall be regarded as a tax-deductible expense and must be publicly disclosed. Further, published information concerning such donations must clearly identify the donor, the nature and amount of that donation and the date the donation is made.

Madam Speaker, with regard to the critical issue of tendering for Government contracts, the bill provides that where a person, company or other entity makes a contribution to a registered political party or a candidate in excess of $50,000, and within two years before making the contribution had entered into a Government contract having a contract value in excess of $2,000,000, it shall be declared to the commission no later than 14 days after making the contribution. In addition, all registered political parties will be entitled to receive State funding. The EBC will be responsible for the administration of the system of allocation and payment of the funds from the Consolidated Fund.

Madam Speaker, the bill also importantly provides for election advertisements which are a key tool utilised by political parties and candidates in educating the voting public. The bill provides that advertisements can only be made by eligible promoters, that is, persons authorised by a registered political party or candidate to publish an election advertisement. Such advertisements must contain a statement setting out the name and address of the promoter.

Madam Speaker, this Government also recognises the importance of regulations to accompany this law on campaign finance. The bill, therefore, proposes to empower the minister, on the recommendation of the commission, to make regulations generally for the better carrying out of the act.

Madam Speaker, in addition to these commendable proposed reforms, the transitional provision in the bill provides that a political party existing immediately before the commencement of this proposed law would be required to comply with the legislation within a specified time frame. Additionally, party symbols which existed immediately before the commencement of the legislation will be deemed as registered.

Madam Speaker, I thank you.

POLITICAL EQUALITY: Dr Keith Rowley