From prison to Parliament

Jamaica’s two main political parties believe that persons with criminal convictions should not be barred from contesting local and national elections if those records can be expunged.

Representatives from both the governing Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) and the opposition People’s National Party (PNP) argued that cases must be assessed individually and within a vacuum.

The positions came at separate Gleaner Editors’ Forums hosted recently.

“If the crime is not expungable, the person should not be eligible to run. The [Constitution] is fairly clear on that. The electoral law does not say that. You can run once you’re on the [ballot],” reasoned JLP General Secretary Dr Horace Chang, who is also the minister of national security.

Under section 40 of the Jamaican Constitution, no one who is a member of the Senate, has the responsibility to conduct an election, has sworn allegiance to a foreign power or State, is a judge of the Supreme Court or the Court of Appeal, has not declared government contracts, has been sentenced to death, declared bankrupt, or is certified insane is qualified to run for office.

Under the Representation of the People Act, a person not within any of the classes of persons who lack qualification or are disqualified by reason of crime, mental capacity or disfranchisement for corrupt or illegal practices is eligible to run for office.

Government Senator Marlon Morgan, who serves as a member of the JLP’s communication task force, said cases must be assessed on their particular merits.

Sexual offence or a serious crime such as murder

“So if you consider, for example, a sexual offence or a serious crime such as murder or some other serious offences like those, then those persons would essentially not be eligible in my view,” he said.

In Jamaica, the expungement of criminal records is governed by the Criminal Records (Rehabilitation of Offenders) Act, 1988.

Convictions that attract a non-custodial sentence or a custodial sentence of imprisonment not exceeding five years are generally eligible for expungement.

The applicant must have no further convictions during a specified rehabilitation period, which varies based on the sentence.

Serious offences listed under the Third Schedule of the act cannot be expunged. These include: murder, distribution of child pornography, carnal abuse with a person under 16, sexual intercourse with a person under 16, and certain firearm and ammunition-related offences.

PNP General Secretary Dr Dayton Campbell disclosed that for the coming general election, the party has sent a list of its prospective candidates to the Office of the Police Commissioner for scrutiny.

“We put together the list and we sent it to them – to the commissioner – to say, ‘These are the persons we are seeking to put forward. Do you have any interest? Is there anything related to any one of them that should be of concern? … We haven’t gotten anything from the commissioner saying he has any problem with any of them,” said Campbell.

His comments were buttressed by Leader of Opposition Business in the Senate Peter Bunting, who indicated that the submission of the list goes beyond the matter of having a criminal record.

According to Bunting, a former minister of national security, the party asks whether the police is in possession of intelligence which suggests that the persons wanting to run would not make a suitable candidate.

It was indicated that this was also done internationally.

Still, he said whether the person is allowed to run for office should be dependent on the offence and the time that has since passed.

Like Morgan, Bunting believes persons convicted for the possession of a small quantity or marijuana should not have the offence held against them.

These positions come against the backdrop of the February 2015 decriminalising of possession of up to two ounces of marijuana.

“There must be a path to remediation for a young person like that who made a mistake. I don’t think that you should condemn them for life. But, to answer [about whether someone should be barred due to] a criminal record, you really need to have a lot more detail. How recent was it? What type of offence was it? Was this person a criminal kingpin of some sort, is it a repeat offender? ... Not all criminal offences are equal,” he said.

“So a lot of things would have to be looked at. I would never say out of hand that somebody with a criminal record should not run because then most of who we call national heroes today would not qualify to be in politics,” he added.

You’ve paid your

debt to society

“If the justice system has mechanisms for expunging criminal records after you’ve paid your debt to society and it’s not an easy system to get your record expunged, it weighs all the factors quite heavily, but if you qualify for that, then I don’t see why I, as a layman or political party officer, should go beyond what the justice system allows in terms of expungement,” Bunting said.

PNP prospective candidate for Portland Eastern Isat Buchanan, an attorney-at-law, was convicted in Jamaica for possession of, dealing in and taking steps to smuggle cocaine. He was also sentenced to approximately 10 years’ imprisonment in a United States prison for similar drug-smuggling crimes. It is not immediately clear if his records have been expunged.

The JLP has publicly criticised the Mark Golding-led PNP over the decision to offer Buchanan as a candidate after the opposition party criticised its decision to readmit controversial Member of Parliament George Wright to the party.

But Bunting said if the officers of the court, the legal profession, “don’t feel that he (Buchanan) should be disqualified for whatever the offence he committed, then who am I to go beyond those who are his peers and officers of the court to determine that he shouldn’t run”.

The JLP has insisted that because Buchanan is being allowed to run, the PNP has “no moral authority to speak on matters concerning corruption, crime or ethics”.

Pressed on whether the PNP position on Wright – who has neither confirmed nor denied that he was the man on camera beating a woman with a stool and was never tried for the offence – could stand, Bunting said that at the time of the incident captured on video, he was a serving member of parliament.

“This is no youth with a minor indiscretion. To me, they are not on the same levels at all – apples to oranges,” said Bunting.

kimone..francis@gleanerjm.com