And on Wednesday, we told you that the Belize Chamber of Commerce had drafted a campaign financing bill that they're hoping will eventually be enacted into law. This bill will ensure that politicians are transparent in the source and spending of their campaign finances, to avoid situations similar to the one John Saldivar found himself in.
But will the government be onboard with this bill? That's what Minister Cordel Hyde was asked today.
Cordel Hyde. Minister of Lands
"Campaign financing legislation is absolutely necessary. The cost of running an election is absolutely prohibited, its unconscionable. When I first ran over 25 years ago I was working for $400 a week at Amandala and I could have still run, had barbeques, boil up and that kinds of stuff and run with that. That was 25 years ago. You can't do that now. It's very costly now. Its very prohibitive and so there has to be some regulation, there has to be something put in place. What that something is, I can't say. I know that the attorney general's ministry has been working on legislation, has been trying to canvas legal experts in the region to help us with that. The truth is campaign finance legislation is not going to be a panacea. I don't know that there is a panacea out there, but there has to be one. There has to be some regulation. We have to go at it hard to try to get something in place to try to control and moderate and ensure that elections doesn't become the province of the rich - that an ordinary person can aspire, an ordinary person can run, can raise the requisite funds to participate. Right now it's just prohibitive if you are a new comer."
Reporter
"But do you see it happening in this administration?"
Cordel Hyde. Minister of Lands
"Yes, we are committed to good governance, we are committed to trying to put in place those kinds of legislation that will ensure that things improve in this country. In fact, we just had a meeting with the joint unions a few weeks ago and gave that undertaking again and there are a number of legislation that we have been working on to ensure that we progress in that area and so we are going to go hard at it. That's a full commitment from the government to ensure that we have it. Now what it looks like, I can't say, because there has been various pieces of legislation throwing around. I don't know that its a magic formula, but we have to get something in place to start regulating this."
