…says Gail Teixeira
THE recent claims by A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) on campaign financing and its accusations levelled against the government that the incumbent is using state resources for campaign purposes came in for much criticism from Presidential Advisor on Governance, Gail Teixeira, who said APNU should be the last to raise concerns over elections campaign financing.

APNU’s Lance Carberry claims that the PPP/C was using state resources to give handouts to especially Amerindians, and to host events, including the Day of Appreciation held last Friday at the Guyana National Stadium, Providence.

This, APNU is claiming, is an abuse of state resources for the purpose of gaining votes ahead of the upcoming elections.

However in an invited comment, Teixeira said such comments by the APNU is pure “grandstanding”, since APNU, which includes the largest political opposition, the PNCR, has failed to attend most of the meetings of the Special Select Committee of the National Assembly on the political parties campaign financing.

The PNCR is represented on the committee by Basil Williams, Deborah Backer and Dr John Austin.

The report of the committee, which was distributed in parliament, revealed that the three representatives of the PNCR, now APNU, have been absent from most of the committee meetings.

Of the seven meetings of the committee, between June 2, 2011, and September 6, 2011, Backer did not attend any, while Williams and Dr Austin attended just three.

Teixeira said that APNU has missed many opportunities to raise its concerns regarding the campaign financing, whether deliberate or not, but now sees it fit to go to the media, hoping it will draw the sympathy of the electorate.

The report also shows that both Williams and Dr Austin were scheduled to make presentations on campaign financing models used in other parts of the world; but they were not there on the day set for the presentations.
According to the report, the committee agreed to formally write members of the main Opposition PNCR, seeking clarification as to whether its absence from the meeting was an indication of its non-attendance at subsequent meetings of the Committee, the report adds.
However the PNCR members, the report says, continue to absent themselves from the meeting.

According to Teixeira, the very party that is now asking for the issue of campaign financing to be dealt with before it signs the Guyana Elections Commission’s (GECOM) Code of Conduct failed to utilise the opportunities to get clarifications and its concerns addressed at the level of the Special Select Committee.

According to the PPP Parliamentarian, who also chairs the Special Select Committee on Campaign Financing, the Opposition parties have always been delinquent in reporting their campaign financing.

“The only Political party that has been reporting on its campaign financing is the PPP/Civic, except for 2006, when no party reported” Teixeira said.

Meanwhile, Teixeira said it is “hypocritical” for Lance Carberry to raise the issue of campaign financing, since it was he and the PNCR General Secretary, Oscar Clarke, who played down the Organization of American States’ proposal for a model regarding campaign financing, noting that it was not necessary for the 2011 elections.
Teixeira said the very APNU that is talking about campaign financing and source for funds for the elections campaign, is the one that played down questions from the media regarding the source of its US$6M for the 2011 elections campaign.
The APNU announced last week that it has secured some US$6M campaign funds, but failed to disclose from where the money was secured.

APNU’s chief whip, Lance Carberry, when asked about the source of the funding, failed to provide journalists with an answer.

“That’s a very strange question; here it is we’re talking about the election campaign and we’ve explained to you how the campaign is being conducted; the issue of US$6M or any other number is not a problem at this time” Carberry noted.

Meanwhile, a government official said the APNU’s arguments that the ruling party is giving hand-outs to gain votes is nothing short of “cheap politics, lack of proper campaign points, and its best shot to discredit the development under the current administration.”
The official said the developments taking place are all part of the PPP/C 2006 manifesto, and are aimed at developing Guyana, the civic duty of any democratic and right-minded government.