ECJ Prepares to Receive Campaign Financing Documents – As the dust settles on the staging of the General Election, the work of one arm of the Electoral Commission of Jamaica (ECJ) has just begun. The ECJ is preparing to receive campaign financing documents from political parties. Under the campaign financing legislation, political parties must report on their campaign donations and expenditure as at the date of the announcement of the General Election on August 11 up to 180 days after the election date.
Under the campaign financing legislation, political parties must not exceed 630 million dollars in spending and each constituency must not exceed 10 million dollars.
Additionally, each candidate can, individually, spend J$15 million, or a combined amount of $945 million. That means that the total expenditure of a party could be as much as 1.6 billion dollars
Registrar of Political Parties at the Electoral Office of Jamaica, Llafraun Thompson says all expenditures must be declared. This includes political songs, dubs, advertisements, billboards, posters, party branding, and payment to outdoor agents, refreshments, transportation, or any contribution made in kind.
Prior to the new legislation, there were loopholes in the campaign financing legislation.
A candidate was compliant once the returns were made, even if the expenditure filed was zero, despite the obvious spending.
Previously, candidates were not required to provide any evidence as to the source of the funding.
There was no requirement for proof of expenditure. All of which have been addressed in the new law. Now there are fines of up to three million dollars or one year in prison for breaching the act.
But now there appears to be another gap, the reporting period which begins on the day of the election to 180 days after the General Election which was on September 3. There are reports that political parties and their candidates received money before august 3.
Head of Compliance at Jamaica Money Market Brokers, Carolyn Dacosta says the company has completed its declaration form to be submitted to the EOJ. JMMB donated 5 million dollars to the political parties during the campaign.
