7 News Belize

Peace Movement Calls Dibs On Campaign Finance Reform
posted (February 17, 2020)

At the top of the news, we showed you how the National Trade Union Congress of Belize has decided that it will demonstrate on behalf of good governance. It’s an important issue at this time due to the public unraveling of the UDP’s John Saldivar in the wake of the Lev Dermen scandal. 

One of the demands that the NTUCB is making is that the Barrow Administration enact campaign finance legislation. If passed, campaign financing laws would strictly regulate politicians, and their ability to raise money to fund election campaigns. 

One school of thought is that campaign financing reform in Belize could address corruption in a meaningful way. Well, the politicians from Belize Progressive Party are reminding everyone that they’ve been ringing that bell for years now and that their concerns have been ignored for the most part by the Government and the general public. 

Here’s the BPP’s Bobby Lopez making that point to the press at midday today:

Robert “Bobbyâ€￾ Lopez - Chairman, Belize Peace Movement
"Same thing with campaign financing, this is the only group, those who have run before that has produced - and you, the media know - that has produced a campaign finance report before, during our elections and campaign, and after. So, that the Belizean populace and the voters could see how we spent our money, where we got it from, and we always challenged the [mass] parties, do the same. We’ve been saying over and over, the root of corruption in the political arena is campaign financing. That’s where it’s now coming out, and we’re glad to see that it’s coming out and that the social partners are now talking about it, the media is talking about it. But, we’ve been saying this for years, and nobody wanted to listen. We’re about good governance. Honestly, all of our members would walk away from this if everything was in place, and our country was doing well, we would go back to our businesses. All of us are fair - truthfully, we’re all independent Belizeans."

"The Inter-American Convention on Corruption, signed by the Government in 2001, comes with campaign financing legislation. That could have been enacted a long time ago. UNCAC came with it in 2016 when we signed on. It’s not like we have to go and reinvent the wheel. It’s not like we have to ask the Attorney General’s Office to come up with laws. The laws are there. The best practices are there. We keep wanting to create things ourselves, when we could learn from the mistakes of others, and learn from the best practices of other democracies, and put in place. I would say that campaign financing legislation can be put in practice within the next 3 months."

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