ST GEORGE’S, Grenada, CMC—Political events in Grenada and different international locations within the Organisation of Jap Caribbean States (OECS) obtained a good portion of their cash for election campaigning from donors exterior the territories.
Former St Lucia Prime Minister Allen Chastanet disclosed this when he appeared as a visitor on an area program.
Chastanet, talking concerning the Citizenship by Funding applications and the doable hyperlink to the financing of election campaigns, stated earlier than the CBI applications have been a ‘factor,’ marketing campaign finance by buyers as a type of funding was already occurring.
“Funding, whether or not it’s connected to citizenship or not, has all the time been introduced into focus. It’s lengthy overdue to have an earnest dialogue. I’d say to you with out concern of contradiction that the overwhelming majority of funds coming in to fund campaigns within the OECS come from exterior,” stated Chastanet, the present Chief of the Opposition within the St Lucia Parliament.
“I’ll in all probability say as a lot as 80% comes from exterior, and no one is aware of who these individuals are who’re making these investments or these donations,” he added.
In the course of the June 2022 election marketing campaign, Dickon Mitchell, then the political Chief of the Nationwide Democratic Congress, known as for the enactment of marketing campaign financing legal guidelines. Nevertheless, after 32 months in workplace, there was no dialogue on the problem.
“If we had legal guidelines that restricted, for instance, the quantity of funding that any particular person may give to a political celebration if we had legal guidelines that stated {that a} political celebration should report each cent that it acquired in donation and sponsorship, our politics would change in a single day,” Mitchell then stated.
Following the 1999, 2003, 2008, 2013, 2018, and 2022 common elections, the observers from the Group of American States urged Grenada to enact marketing campaign financing laws.
