ST GEORGES – The head of the Electoral Experts Mission of the Organization of American States (OAS) Nestor Mendez, today urged Grenada to seriously consider campaign financing as a means of ensuring “the equity of the democratic process” in future general elections here.
Mendez, the OAS Assistant Secretary General told a news conference that there are no regulations that directly address the issue of campaign financing, funding for political parties or candidates, resulting in electoral campaigns being privately funded.
“The origin of private funds is not regulated and there are no prohibitions on foreign or anonymous sources. Grenada has established no links on campaign spending and political parties are not required to disclose their financing.”
He said while the stakeholders recognise that access to financial resources or lack thereof “plays an undisputable role in any election and can render the playing field unequal (and) most persons with whom the mission spoke were uncertain about the origins of resources for Grenada’s election and whether or to what extent this might have influenced the outcome of the elections”.
The ruling New National Party (NNP) headed by Prime Minister Dr. Keith Mitchell swept all 15 seats at stake in the polls, making it the third time the party has achieved such a feat since 1999. Tuesday’s victory was the second consecutive occasion.
Mendez said that it was a situation where the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) had failed to win a seat and made reference to the failure of the electorate here in the 2016 constitutional referendum to approve a measure that would have allowed for there to always be a Leader of the Opposition.
The OAS official, whose team of observers had visited more than 100 polling stations during Tuesday’s “peaceful and enthusiastic” elections, said that recognising that unregulated financing from unidentified sources “has the potential to impact the equity of the democratic process and in order to promote transparency and accountability in the electoral process in Grenada, the mission reiterates the recommendations of previous OAS observation missions” for campaign financing.
He said the previous missions had urged the Grenada government “along with appropriate stakeholders consider…campaign finance regulations that establish clear limits on campaign spending (and) require political parties to disclose their sources of funding.
He said the parties should also “prohibit anonymous and foreign donations and limit private and in kind donations to political and electoral campaigns.
“In this regard, the OAS model legislation on campaign financing may provide a useful point of departure,” he said, noting also there had been a slight increase in the number of women who participated in the election.
According to Mendez, 11 of the 45 candidates that participated in the poll were women, a 24 per cent margin, as compared to eight out of 46 in 2013, a 17.3 per cent figure.
He said he was also pleased to note that the NNP had included seven women in its line-up.
But he said Grenada should consider taking steps to ensure more women participate in the entire political process and should consider possible legislation and legal resources to assist in that regard. (CMC)
