EAC with teeth

Published in the Jamaic Gleaner: Thursday | August 16, 2007

Martin Henry

Absolutely, one of the finest results of bi-partisan collaboration in our generally tribal political environment has been the creation of the independent Electoral Advisory Commission.

This was achieved, not in the peaceful and quiet days of genteel debates, but in the daggers-drawn era at the end of the 1970s. In the tight countdown to another election the EAC has declared its intention to rigorously uphold electoral law without fear or favour. It will bite trespassers. Good!

The EAC has joined other agencies of democracy such as the constitutionally established Director of Public Prosecutions, Public Services Commis-sion, and, of course, the Judiciary, plus other agencies like the Contractor-General. And it is time for the EAC to find itself in the constitution.

The key point behind these independent agencies is their freedom from being directed by, or manipulated by, either the executive arm of Government - Prime Minister and Cabinet, or the legislative arm of Government - the Parliament. They are critical parts of the system of checks and balances which should prevent both the concentration and the abuse of power in the democratic Jamaican state.

Senator and historian Anthony Johnson, now an EAC commissioner for the JLP, recently wrote an excellent piece carried by this newspaper, on the establishment and evolution of the Electoral Advisory Commission, while warning against any parliamentary interference with its independent functions.

Other nations are studying and seeking to model the Jamaican electoral system.

Well-oiled election machine

The function of the EAC is baldly simple: Ensure one person, one vote by enumerated eligible electors in free and fair elections of political representatives for defined geographical units. In a situation where electoral fraud had already become deeply entrenched and political intimidation and violence were the order of the day such a simple task turned out not to be simple or easy at all. The EAC has distinguished itself under significant pressure for nearly 30 years. Its operational arm the Electoral Office of Jamaica has become a well-oiled election management machine.

Organisations are only as good as the people who lead them. And the EAC has had strong, distinguished chairpersons and independent commissioners, none more so than the current chair, the incorruptible Professor Errol Miller.

Miller has gone the bold route of a national broadcast to make firmly clear that elections in particular constituencies, and nationally, if it comes to that, will be made null and void if the process is tampered with or corrupted between Nomination Day and the end of Election Day.

Bundles of new laws

While Parliament was wasting time debating mandatory prison sentences for voters displaying their marked ballot, the old and good Representation of the People Act, a law which undergirds the functions of the EAC, is replete with stipulations which, if faithfully applied, would render elections free and fair - and free from fear - at least at the polling station. We have developed a distinct preference for creating bundles of new laws while failing to enforce good old ones.

The EAC has served notice that the laws governing elections will be upheld. For this, the firm and just action of the police will be necessary. In the past, elements of the police have been collaborators, by wilful omission or commission, in the perpetration of electoral fraud.

An independent Police Services Commission should have the power to relieve commanding officers, including the commissioner, of their jobs if negligence or partisanship can be established (and that shouldn't be too hard) for the failure of personnel under their command to uphold the law. Election observers such as those with CAFFE could be of enormous help here as well as regular conscientious citizens armed with their video phones.

Decent, fair play Jamaicans - the majority - are with you, Professor Miller and the commission. Run down the fraudsters, bite them with strong sharp teeth, and block their entry to the House with the full force of the law. And absolutely nobody is above the law.