By Vernon Daley, Parliamentary Reporter
Voters during the October General Election last year. - File
MORE THAN half the 175 candidates who ran in last year's General Election, failed to file returns on their campaign spending, as required by law.
However, none of the guilty candidates have been prosecuted for breaching the Representation of the People Act, which governs the conduct of elections.
Leader of Government Business in the Senate, Burchell Whiteman, disclosed the information in the Senate last Friday in answers to questions posed by Senator Professor Trevor Munroe regarding election spending and the compliance of candidates with the law.
According to Senator Whiteman, 96 of the candidates or their agents failed to file their returns by November 30, while 76 of them complied with the law. Of the candidates who failed to comply with the law, 25 of them ran on the People's National Party (PNP) ticket; 30 are from the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP); 25 from the National Democratic Movement (NDM) and six from the United People's Party (UPP).
Senator Whiteman said the Electoral Office of Jamaica (EOJ) decided not to pursue a case against the offenders, ostensibly because the penalty for non-compliance is only a $100 fine.
There was a greater level of compliance with the law in the 1997 election. Of the 120 candidates who ran, 27 failed to file their returns. All of the offenders were from the JLP. Again, because of the paltry fine, the EOJ decided not to prosecute the offenders.
Earlier this year, Director of Elections and head of the Electoral Office of Jamaica (EOJ), Danville Walker, called for tougher legislation to control the large sums of money spent during election campaigns.
According to him, current legislation that seeks to limit the amount of money a candidate can spend on his election campaign was ineffective and did not provide the means for the electoral authorities to cross-check information provided to them.
"It is absolutely inadequate. This is not sufficient at all in a modern electoral community," Mr. Walker told The Gleaner.
Under the Representation of the People Act, candidates are prohibited from spending more than $3 million on electioneering between Nomination Day and Election Day.
Six weeks after a General Election, they are also required to file returns with their respective Returning Officers setting out the sums spent on their campaigns. However, many candidates have in the past either failed to file or have made false declarations, which understate the amounts spent on electioneering.
Mr. Walker said, at the time, that the legislation has been disregarded because it does not ensure that the returns that are sent in can be audited to discover inconsistencies.
"A system has to be set up where candidates have to document their activities and show the source of funds...and it must be in a way that is auditable," the EOJ boss said.
