EAC wants Electoral Commission bill passed this week
October 19, 2006
The Electoral Advisory Committee (EAC) wants the long awaited bill transforming the committee into a commission of Parliament passed by the Senate no later than this week.
An adamant EAC chairman, Professor Errol Miller, said yesterday that the Electoral Commission, which is slated to replace the EAC, has provisions for dealing with campaign financing, the issue which led to a delay in passing the bill in the Senate last week.
"We think it's very important to have the commission in place, because we saw that campaign financing would be an issue and, therefore, we put the powers within the commission," Miller told journalists at an emergency press briefing at the EAC office on Old Hope Road in Kingston yesterday.
"Let's bring it to being," he said. "Let's get it established and then move with those matters."
Miller insisted that any public debate on the issue should be under the aegis of the commission, which would then report to Parliament.
The Clerk's Office at Gordon House confirmed yesterday that the Senate is to meet on Friday and it is expected that the bill, The Electoral Commission (Interim) Act, will be the main item on the agenda. The Act will remain in force until a second bill giving the commission constitutional authority is passed.
The interim bill was expected to be debated in the Senate last Friday, but the Senate spent hours debating a resolution from government member Senator Trevor Munroe, to have the EAC table its recommendations on political party funding....
Author: Alicia Dunkley
Source: Jamaica Observer
