Commonwealth Election Observer Group (COG) chairperson and former Maltese Foreign Affairs minister Evarist Bartolo said the issue of campaign finance reform was raised with political parties prior to the election. He said the major political parties seemed to agree that it should not be on the parliamentary agenda.

He made the statement to media while presenting the group’s interim statement at the Hilton Trinidad and Conference Centre on April 29.

“They said, ‘We are considering it, we took it to Parliament, there was the joint committee.’

"By the way, let me be blunt, it’s interesting that in this case, both major parties here seemed to agree not to put it on the agenda. They told us it’s been in the committee for the last five years, and now as you know, once Parliament finishes, it has to come up again as a new agenda item. The hope is that if we recommend this, that the issue of campaign financing is taken seriously.”

He said there is an urgent need for campaign finance regulation so that political parties are not torn between the interests of their financiers and the interests of the people they represent.

Bartolo said ten years ago, the 2015 COG statement said the EBC was reflecting on proposals to regulate registration and campaign financing of political parties and recommended the incoming parliament, political parties and all relevant stakeholders prioritise this process. He said this has become more urgent and is a problem worldwide.

“If we don’t regulate campaign financing, we do not have democracies, we have plutocracies (government by the wealthy). Instead of voters, what counts are the donors, and democracy is being threatened worldwide with the fact that the donors have more say than voters. It is important that there is pressure on making political parties go for campaign financing.”

He said TT is not the only parliamentary democracy where campaign financing has not been regulated for political parties.

“People are losing trust in parliamentary democracy and the way they express it is that they wouldn’t go out to vote, so I think it’s in the long-term interest of political parties to implement campaign finance reform. This is an area where citizens, the media and civil society groups have to put pressure on the political parties. Don’t expect them to do it on their own, they will not.”

Bartolo said the group encouraged parties to adhere to the code for ethical political conduct, including transposing parts of it into law.

He noted that in listening to politicians on the campaign trail, it gave the impression that the country was on the verge of civil war, but in talking to them one on one, they said, ‘Don’t worry, it won’t happen.’"

He said the rhetoric was used to divide and show difference during an election campaign and was a tactic used worldwide.

“There are people who will say, ‘Attack the problems, don’t attack each other.' We would like you to attack crime, corruption, unemployment, instead of each other. The adversaries should be these big challenges. And let us re