The Honourable Second Member for Port Louis North and Montagne Longue, Mrs Luchman Roy, has asked the Prime minister a question about political financing, and wherever, he will introduce another Political Financing Bill in the Assembly.
The Prime minister explained that the issue of political financing has been the subject of debate over several years and unfortunately, no proposal has so far met unanimity across the political spectrum. Regrettably, In the past, bills for such concerning political financing could not secure a three-quarter majority as required by section 47(2)(b) of the Constitution, as the Opposition parties voted against the enactment of the Bills.
For Pravind Jugnauth, the rejection of the Political Financing Bill demonstrated the lack of will of the Opposition parties to promote a culture of transparency and integrity in the political arena. In fact, after the rejection of the Constitution (Amendment) Bill in 2018, this turned out to be the second time that the Opposition boycotted prominent attempts at electoral reform.
Here is an extract of the Prime minster reply:
The first concrete attempt in our political history to introduce a Political Financing Bill into the National Assembly to regulate the financing of political parties was made in 2019. In fact, the genesis of this Bill can be traced back to December 2015 when the Government, under the prime ministership of the Late Sir Anerood Jugnauth, had set up a Ministerial Committee to make recommendations on several important aspects of our electoral system.
The recommendations of the Ministerial Committee, chaired at that time by Minister Mentor were approved by the Government on 30 November 2018. Following a consultation exercise, on 02 July 2019, I myself, as Prime Minister, introduced the Constitution (Amendment) Bill and the Political Financing Bill in the National Assembly.
The object of the Political Financing Bill was to provide for accountability and transparency with regard to the financing of, inter alia, political parties at a general election, with a view to preventing undue influence and corruption. In addition to conferring powers to the Electoral Supervisory Commission (ESC) and Electoral Commissioner to investigate into the financial affairs of registered political parties for the better regulation of political financing, the Bill provided for, inter alia, the legal framework for political financing and donations, instances where acceptance of donation would be prohibited, ceiling on expenditure, limitations on donation-in-kind, and obligations to keep accounting records as well as sanctions and offences for non-compliance with provisions of that proposed legislation.
Given that the Political Financing Bill proposed, in addition, to the widening of the functions and powers of the ESC and the Electoral Commissioner, relevant amendments to section 41 of the Constitution were required. Accordingly, the Constitution (Amendment) Bill which aimed at providing additional powers and functions to the ESC and the Electoral Commissioner, was introduced at the same time as the Political Financing Bill.
In addition, the Political Financing Bill provided that no person shall donate to an individual member of a registered political party, other than to the treasurer of that party. Obligations for political parties to keep a Register of Donations as well as accounting records showing, inter alia, entries of all donations received and the requirement to submit an audited Statement of Account to the ESC were also provided therein.
