The impact of current debate on election campaign finance legislation on the imminent general elections remains unclear.
Several members of the Joint Select Committee (JSC) on election campaign financing held a press conference in Parliament at the Waterfront Complex, Port-of-Spain.But JSC chairman Wade Mark offered no assurance that the reform process would be in place before voters go to the polls.
Asked if the legislation would be in place before the election Mark said, "I cannot predict that. The work of the committee is important in determining this matter and this committee cannot take decisions on its own. This is a matter for the society and this is why we have taken a decision to write to all political parties, the Law Association, the Media Association, the T&T Institute of Transparency, to civil organisations, the chambers, the trade unions because we need to have the input of all these stakeholders...that in itself would take some time."
He said this was needed so that legislation would be properly formed. A public consultation is also expected to be held in April.
A report, Mark added, was due to be submitted to the both houses of Parliament on or before May 7, this year.
TheParliamentary term comes to a close on June 17.
Elections and Boundaries Commission (EBC) chairman Dr Norbert Masson called for urgent election campaign financing reform in October 2014.
Independent Senator Helen Drayton piloted a private motion on this issue in November 2013
Leader of Government Business in the Senate and member of the JSC Ganga Singh said in 2004 he filed a motion in the House of Representatives dealing with the issue but it "did not see the light."
"Since 2004 the matter has been evolving. It is this administration that made it happen," Singh said.
Leader of the Congress of the People (COP) and Legal Affairs Minister Prakash Ramadhar who was also present lauded that fact that procurement legislation has been made law.
"For this campaign in party finance reform it is important that the procurement legislation be put in place because that would give it teeth so as it stands now you could have persons making contributions to either a party in Government or in Opposition at the end of which allegations can be made," Ramadhar said.
He added it was very important that society to appreciate the need for procurement legislation and now the "second stage" which was party finance.
In giving his take on what caused the long deal to deal with the issue of election campaign financing Ramadhar said there were many crucial pieces of legislation brought forward by the PP Government, adding that it was done so within a particular timeframe.
"It would be wrong really to weight this issue as if it was delayed for any reason other than the fact that we had a priority listing...procurement being on the highest and that now having been delivered this is the second stage," Ramadhar added.
Submissions have already been received on the issue from the Elections and Boundaries Commission (EBC), the Organisation of American States (OAS) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), which submitted a compilation of research documents and paper entitled, A Review of Regional and International Approaches to Election Campaign Financing.
Registration of political parties must be examined
On whether there was any clause which prevented political parties from voluntarily disclosing a list of all its campaign contributors Mark said that was a matter for the political parties.
"But we are regulated by a law, the Representation of the People's Act, that govern elections in T&T.
"One of the weakness in the Act is we do not recognise parties, we recognise candidates and one of the areas our committee certainly will have to look at is the whole question of the registration of political parties in our country," Mark added.
Attorney General Garvin Nicholas said campaign legislation was not the "be all and end all" of anything.
"At the end of the day, we are trying to ensure that businesspeople who contribute to political parties don't have an undue influence on Government," Nicholas added.
Asked whether any political party would be in fact willing to disclose their financial contributors for this year's general election Ramadhar said, "I can tell you for the COP we have many citizens who contribute but asked that they not be identified for fear of possible incrimination."