BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – THE National Integrity Party (NIP) has called upon the St. Kitts-Nevis Labour Party Administration to speedily enact Campaign Finance Legislation which would regulate the issuance and use of funds for political campaigns.
Deputy Leader of the NIP Roy Fleming appeared on WINNFM late last week with the Political Leader of that party, Glenroy Blanchette, and described as “unfortunate” the fact that St. Kitts and Nevis does not have such legislation.
He said the presence of Campaign Finance Legislation would have guarded against certain happenings of the past and once instituted would discourage corruption.
“The time is now for that type of legislation to be introduced into the National Assembly. Our party was formed out of the anti-corruption movement within the People’s Action Movement party at the time, and the whole issue of campaign finance legislation was weighing very heavily on our minds because I’m not going to go into detail but everybody in the country knows what was happening over at the Marriott…
“…I’m saying that if we had Campaign Finance Legislation in place where we have guidelines of how party campaign finances should be handled etc, then what occurred over at the Marriott Hotel would have never occurred.”
The aspiring minister of government and former candidate for the People’s Action Movement said his party is not in support of the practice of politicians feeding their greed and neglecting those whom they were elected to represent.
“So going forward, the National Integrity Party (is) calling on the government to introduce as soon as possible Campaign Finance Legislation and have it debated and passed in the National Assembly, because we need to hold our persons who want to represent us in Parliament to a certain standard…
“And if persons want to get into government just to fill their pockets with money and more money and more money and care not one iota about poor people in this country, and all they care about is their friends and their families to be rich and rich and rich, money cyarn done. The National Integrity Party (does not) support that at all!”
