SENATOR A J Nicholson, the Leader of Opposition Business in the Upper House, is pushing for a ban preventing any electronic device from being brought into a voting area, after alleging that such items were used in the last general elections for vote buying.
Senator Nelson made the charge during debate on a number of amendments to the Representation of the People Act (ROPA), among them a prohibition of the use of cellular phones, digital cameras and other image recording devices in polling stations by electors to record their ballot after it has been marked and to make violations of that prohibition subject to the same penalty as other violations of the secrecy of the ballot; the transfer of electors in special cases; and the repeal of sections dealing with the use of motor vehicles and their regulation with respect to the transportation of electors to the poll.
  NICHOLSON… the presiding officer has the power to confiscate ballots 1/1  |
Acording to Nicholson, just a ban on the use of such devices was not enough.
"The presiding officer has the power to confiscate ballots [and] I would have thought one of the things that would have been done is to ban the taking of cameras, cellular phones or other recording devices; ban them from being taken into the voting area," Nicholson suggested.
"By the way, the presiding officer is never going to find out that this has been done [that the devices were carried into the voting area]. This provision is cosmetic, it's blowing in the wind, it's neither here nor there. The presiding officer is never going to find out and the truth is, there is a lot of anecdotal evidence in the last general election of that being done; it is connected to vote buying and they take the camera and you have to come and show who you vote for or else you have to give back the money," he alleged.
"I will vote in favour of the provision but I don't see how this is going to prevent anything," he said further. Responding to a question from Government Senator Desmond McKenzie who wanted to find out how presiding officers would find out if voters have electronic devices, Nicholson said it was easy and should do searches it that was necessary. "If a presiding officer has reason to suspect that someone has it [recording device], search them," he said.
At the same time, Nicholson said there should be a cap on the number of vehicles to be used in constituencies.
The amendments to the Acts were prompted by recommendations contained in the report of the Electoral Advisory Commission last year, which also incorporated suggestions made by the former Electoral Advisory Committee in 2006 but which were not debated nor approved, though tabled.
The commission said that given the times, the sections of the Act that apply to the use of motor vehicles to convey voters to the poll, the registration of motor vehicles as electoral vehicles and the restrictions on users of registered electoral vehicles were no longer necessary and should be deleted from the Act. The recommendation was accepted.
Nicholson said the contents of the provision was not the only thing that left him with "a great deal of disappointment".
"I would have hoped that by now this business of donations to political parties be over by now because it levels the playing field, it prevents suspicion. Until Jamaica reaches a position where donations are made public we are moving nowhere closer to being the just society," he said.
Responding to a muttered comment on Trafigura from McKenzie, Nicholson, said "It is precisely because of Trafigura why it should have been done because when donations to political parties are made public the first thing it does is prevent the law from being broken to find out the contents of persons bank accounts. Let's be frank, from 1944 to now it is private businesses that have made donations to political parties for the running of elections," said Nicholson.
"All of these amendments brought here today are important, but the greatest of respect they pale into insignificance at what should have been done over these last few years," he added.
The Opposition is now under the microscope by the authorities who are investigating the $31-million donation in 2006 to the party by Trafigura Beheer, which had an oil-lifting agreement with Jamaica. The Opposition has said the money was a donation for electioneering, but Trafigura claimed that it was payment on a commercial agreement.
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