Dining out in Trinidad & Tobago
I dont know when else I’ll see another story on campaign finance in Trinidad & Tobago, so:
Minister in the Finance Ministry Christine Sahadeo has said that the $100,000 a plate fund raising dinner with Prime Minister Patrick Manning was in keeping with the transparency procedures of the ruling party.
The XE Currency Converter puts that US$15,852 - an expensive dinner! I wonder how many people in a country of just over 1M have that kind of money. No wonder the dinner raises eyebrows about the possibility that its intent may not be innocent fundraising for political purpose, but possible toll-gating of businesses by the government.
At first, she said the People’s National Movement (PNM) administration tries to separate “Government as opposed to party issues”. Asked how the line could be drawn with regard to the dinner since the PNM is the party in Government seeking to raise $100,000 a plate in campaign funding from a single event, she said:
“I really don’t want to go into detail but as you can appreciate it is separated out….”
The IDEA database, as well as the article, state that the country has no campaign finance regulations.