THE National Assembly Thursday adopted a motion on the report of the parliamentary special select committee on political parties’ campaign financing which was tabled by Alliance for Change (AFC) member, Sheila Holder, sometime ago. PPP/C Member of Parliament, Gail Teixeira, said that the committee benefited very little from the Opposition, given their decision to not work through the recess, and said that the committee came up with several recommendations to guide future parliaments with regard to campaign financing, one of which aims at ensuring that political parties are not subjected to undue influence by stakeholders based on their financial or
in-kind contributions.
“Despite the fact that our elections expenses laws would need updating, we called on all political parties contesting the 2011 national and regional elections that they should report on their election expenses in accordance with existing representation of the People’s Act,” Teixeira said.
PPP/C Member of Parliament, Odinga Lumumba, said that the committee looked at how this issue is dealt with in countries such as India, Europe, the United States, and other countries to get a sense on what approach would best suit Guyana.

“The reality is that political parties need funding to campaign as part of the electoral process; the question then becomes whether we allow private funding with some form of control or government funding,” Lumumba said.  (GINA)