DA­REECE PO­LO

Se­nior Re­porter

da­reece.po­lo@guardian.co.tt

The Move­ment for So­cial Jus­tice (MSJ) has ac­cused both the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) and the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) of hypocrisy amid the on­go­ing in­ves­ti­ga­tion in­to the fund­ing of Bal­isi­er House, con­demn­ing both par­ties for fail­ing to en­act cam­paign fi­nance re­form de­spite years of promis­es.

The calls for re­form come as the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice in­ves­ti­gates how the PNM fi­nanced the con­struc­tion of Bal­isi­er House af­ter ob­tain­ing a court or­der au­tho­ris­ing the in­quiry.

The PNM has said it has not yet been served with the or­der, which was is­sued on Fri­day, but is pre­pared to re­spond once it re­ceives the doc­u­ments. The State has sev­en days to serve the doc­u­ments.

MSJ po­lit­i­cal leader David Ab­du­lah said the in­ves­ti­ga­tion had once again high­light­ed the need for leg­is­la­tion to reg­u­late po­lit­i­cal fi­nanc­ing.

He not­ed that the Rep­re­sen­ta­tion of the Peo­ple (Amend­ment) (No. 2) Bill, 2020, re­mained be­fore a Joint Se­lect Com­mit­tee (JSC) of Par­lia­ment for four years with­out be­ing passed.

The pro­posed leg­is­la­tion would re­quire po­lit­i­cal par­ties to reg­is­ter, main­tain prop­er ac­count­ing records, sub­mit an­nu­al fi­nan­cial re­ports and dis­close the fi­nan­cial in­sti­tu­tions where they hold ac­counts.

Ac­cord­ing to Ab­du­lah, the com­mit­tee was made up pri­mar­i­ly of PNM and UNC par­lia­men­tar­i­ans, whose fail­ure to ad­vance the leg­is­la­tion demon­strates that nei­ther par­ty is se­ri­ous about re­form.

“They’re both guilty of un­der­min­ing the democ­ra­cy of Trinidad and To­ba­go, be­cause Kam­la talks about the 1% fi­nanc­ing the PNM and so on. Well, who are the fi­nanciers of the UNC, Kam­la? Tell us who are the fi­nanciers of the UNC,” he said.

He al­so crit­i­cised the PNM for fail­ing to ad­vance cam­paign fi­nance re­form dur­ing its decade in of­fice, ar­gu­ing that the leg­is­la­tion in­tro­duced to Par­lia­ment in 2020 re­quired on­ly a sim­ple ma­jor­i­ty and did not de­pend on the Op­po­si­tion’s sup­port.

“So, when Dr Row­ley fuss­es about what is hap­pen­ing to the PNM. When Pen­ny Beck­les fuss­es about what is hap­pen­ing and Mar­vin Gon­za­les — all of them were in Par­lia­ment be­tween 2020 and 2025.”

His com­ments came as oth­er po­lit­i­cal lead­ers al­so called for cam­paign fi­nance re­form in re­sponse to the in­ves­ti­ga­tion in­to the fund­ing of the PNM’s head­quar­ters.

Pa­tri­ot­ic Front po­lit­i­cal leader Mick­ela Pan­day said all po­lit­i­cal par­ties should be held to the same stan­dard of trans­paren­cy. She said the ab­sence of com­pre­hen­sive leg­is­la­tion has al­lowed ques­tions sur­round­ing po­lit­i­cal do­na­tions and cam­paign spend­ing to per­sist re­gard­less of which par­ty forms the gov­ern­ment.

“For too long, our po­lit­i­cal sys­tem has op­er­at­ed with­out com­pre­hen­sive cam­paign fi­nance leg­is­la­tion. That has cre­at­ed an en­vi­ron­ment where ques­tions about po­lit­i­cal fundrais­ing and po­lit­i­cal fi­nanc­ing arise re­peat­ed­ly, re­gard­less of which par­ty is in­volved. That is un­healthy for our democ­ra­cy and un­der­mines pub­lic con­fi­dence in our in­sti­tu­tions, she said.

Min­is­ter in the Min­istry of Hous­ing Phillip Ed­ward Alexan­der al­so said the in­ves­ti­ga­tion un­der­scored the need for re­form.

He ar­gued that stronger cam­paign fi­nance rules are es­sen­tial to restor­ing pub­lic trust and ex­pressed con­fi­dence that the cur­rent ad­min­is­tra­tion would bring leg­is­la­tion be­fore Par­lia­ment.

Alexan­der is al­so the po­lit­i­cal leader of the Pro­gres­sive Em­pow­er­ment Par­ty (PEP).

“I be­lieve the fact that she (Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar) is go­ing so hard at the cam­paign is­sues with oth­er par­ties au­gurs well for the coun­try. And it sug­gests that we should be see­ing cam­paign fi­nance leg­is­la­tion be­fore the Par­lia­ment at some point.”

Alexan­der added: “At the end of the day, the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress is the lead par­ty in the Gov­ern­ment. And we (the PEP) fol­low, we toe that line. But the re­al­i­ty of the sit­u­a­tion is, to me, that it needs to be done. And I strong­ly be­lieve that this Prime Min­is­ter will be the one to lead us to where we need to go.”

He al­so claimed Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar had re­ject­ed do­na­tions from cer­tain in­di­vid­u­als dur­ing the elec­tion cam­paign.

“I know for a fact cer­tain per­sons who tried to do­nate mon­ey dur­ing the elec­tions were re­fused. She’s very clear,” he said.