Gedi

BRIDGETOWN (CMC):

A hemispheric body has described 2006 as a good year for Caribbean democracies but said the issue of election campaign financing must be addressed.

This assessment came from Organisation of American States (OAS) Assistant Secretary, General Albert Ramdin, who said the body was pleased with the conduct of elections in Haiti, Guyana and St. Lucia this year, but believed that some attention must be paid to the contentious issue of campaign financing.

"A lot of money has been spent in the Caribbean campaigns over the past year. There are many questions raised with regards to the source of funding.

"I don't want to pinpoint any particular case, but there are many questions raised and I believe it is something which should be discussed among CARICOM leaders as an issue of concern for the future because this can create a situation in which we can get undesirable effects of involve-ment of non-political play in the political process," he said.

The OAS official said countries should move to strengthen their electoral law, and added that this was an area in which his organisation was willing to assist.

"That assistance can be provided. We intend to suggest and work with the CARICOM Secretariat in organising once again another meeting of political representatives to talk about these issues and probably this time, much more focus on campaign financing and political party financing, so that hopefully we can get an idea about where the politicians in the region would want to go," he said.

Within recent times, the issue of campaign financing emerged as a major one in some Caribbean countries.