The new Free National Movement (FNM) leadership team has its first task clearly in front of it. The party is $1 million in debt from the 2012 election campaign, according to its former Leader Hubert Ingraham.
"When those who oppose us commenced their election television campaigns early, we did not; not because we did not wish to but because we could not afford a television campaign. We needed more money to run a more effective campaign this year," said Ingraham on Saturday at Holy Trinity Activities Centre, Stapledon Gardens.
Ingraham also revealed another interesting figure. He said the party raised $131,000 through online donations during the three-plus-week period the party pushed for such donations during the campaign. Some 363 individuals donated online, 30 people made direct deposits at the bank and others took small cash donations to FNM headquarters at Mackey Street, according to Ingraham.
"I believe that this initiative to involve a wide cross section of Bahamians in supporting our party bodes well for the development of our democracy. It is my hope that such fundraising will continue, demonstrating real ownership of our party by the people," he said.
If such a sum can be raised in such a short time, parties could raise even more from small donations year-round, especially emphasizing online donations. U.S. President Barack Obama has mastered this method of fundraising regularly asking his supporters through emails for "$3 or whatever you can" to boost his reelection effort.
In The Bahamas, we have no campaign finance laws. Often the party that is able to solicit the biggest donations from the most "generous" investors - often foreign - has the advantage. This wide-open system gives foreigners who want something specific in return tremendous influence over our political system and our politicians. It also gives that same power to the richest Bahamians.
The small and medium-sized donations model is more democratic. If parties raised most of their money from smaller donations from a large number of people, these parties and their leaders would be less beholden to the narrow interests of plutocrats.
Additionally, more Bahamians would feel they have a stake in the work of their parties, as they actually invested financially in them. This would make political parties more like publicly traded companies with the wide base of donors being like shareholders.
The Bahamas could easily begin its move to regulating campaign financing by banning foreign money in our elections and capping donations. The new FNM Leader, Dr. Hubert Minnis, said in a recent interview with The Nassau Guardian that he thinks there needs to be some form of campaign finance reform and hopes that Prime Minister Perry Christie would be open to the idea. If Dr. Minnis is serious he should push for the initiative. That would demonstrate that he is a reformer. The issue has not been touched by FNM or Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) administrations.
We must protect our democracy from those who seek to openly buy the influence of our political leaders. Such laws are overdue.
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