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published: Sunday | February 11, 2007 <DIV class=KonaBody OP1q9="true">
Abe Dabdoub, Contributor
Dabdoub and Golding
On October 10, 2006, I opened the debate on the bill entitled 'The Registration and Funding of Political Parties Act', which was laid by me in the House of Representatives in early May, 2006, and approved by Cabinet before July, 2006. The second <SPAN class=kLink style="FONT-WEIGHT: 400; COLOR: orange! important; FONT-FAMILY: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; POSITION: relative">speaker</SPAN> was the Leader of the Opposition, Bruce Golding, who attempted to derail the bill by threatening that the Opposition would not participate in any Joint Select Committee established to consider the provisions of the bill.
Mr. Goldingstated, and I quote from the Hansard transcript, "Some two/three years ago, the former Prime Minister and the former Leader of the Opposition had discussions on the matter and it was agreed between them that the matter really ought to be put within the scope of work of the Electoral Advisory Committee."
I consulted with the former Leader of the Opposition, the Most Honourable Edward Seaga, last week, who again said he has never had discussions with the former Prime Minister, the Most Honourable P.J. Patterson, on the matter of the registration and funding of political parties, and that they had no agreement.
Mr. Golding has now developed a new take on the matter, as reported in The Gleaner of January 29, 2007, and I quote: "Why not allow the Electoral Commission the opportunity to do its job? This was agreed on as a matter of principle by Michael Manley and Edward Seaga many years ago, so I don't know what Mr. Dabdoub is trying to come with now." I have also checked this with Mr. Seaga, who told me that he and Michael Manley had no such agreement allowing the Electoral Advisory Committee to deal with matters concerning the registration and funding of political parties and/or campaign <SPAN class=kLink style="FONT-WEIGHT: 400; COLOR: orange! important; FONT-FAMILY: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; POSITION: relative">financing</SPAN>.
Responsible for advising
No such agreement, either with the Most Honourable Michael Manley or the Most Honourable P.J. Patterson, would have been proper, as there was no provision in the Representation of the People (Interim Electoral Reform) Act, which established the Electoral Advisory Committee, making this one of the functions of the Committee. Section 5 of the act expressly provided that the committee shall be responsible for advising the director on the performance of his duties under the Representation of the People Act. There was no provision that gives the committee the function of advising on <A class=kLink oncontextmenu="return false;" id=KonaLink2 onmouseover=adlinkMouseOver(event,this,2); style="POSITION: static; TEXT-DECORATION: underline! impo
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