The Status of Party Financing in the English-Speaking Caribbean

• Author: Cynthia Barrow-Giles
• Pages: 146-154

146 General Elections and Voting

A review of elections and party political competition in the English-

speaking Caribbean would be incomplete without exploring some

of the wider issues governing the operations of political parties in the

Caribbean. Critical among these issues is the question of the financing

of political parties and the impact of such financing on political processes,

and the quality of governance in the region. What is the role played by

money in selecting a government? What is the link between the financial

liquidity of political parties and the outcome of a general election? While

this is highly debatable, and we certainly should not assume that

financially well-endowed political parties will win an electoral contest,

it is conceivable that inequitable funding does have the potential to be

significant, especially in close races. A financially well-endowed political

party is more easily able to sell its ideas whether through television and

radio advertisements, public meetings, door-to-door campaigning, use

of the print media and of course, though not openly discussed, through

vote buying and other related practices.

The growth in the cost of managing and staging an election requires

tremendous capital outlay by political parties or candidates. Currently

in terms of the total cost of waging an election campaign in the

Commonwealth Caribbean, there is a growing tendency to recruit North

American and regional public relations firms to assist in electioneering,

particularly with respect to polling and public relations. In this era of

political marketing there has been a tendency to de-emphasize the nightly

and weekly (in extended election periods) public community mass

THE STATUS OF PARTY FINANCING IN THE

ENGLISH-SPEAKING CARIBBEAN

CHAPTER 5