With 161 can­di­dates of­fi­cial­ly nom­i­nat­ed for the up­com­ing Gen­er­al Elec­tions on April 28, 2025, the Coun­cil for Re­spon­si­ble Po­lit­i­cal Be­hav­iour is call­ing on all po­lit­i­cal par­ties, can­di­dates, and sup­port­ers to ad­here to the prin­ci­ples out­lined in the Code of Eth­i­cal Po­lit­i­cal Con­duct.

The Coun­cil said in a state­ment that while the Code has ex­ist­ed for over a decade, it has ex­pressed con­cern that many cit­i­zens—and even some politi­cians—re­main un­aware of its con­tents. In re­sponse, a na­tion­wide pub­lic ed­u­ca­tion cam­paign has been launched to raise aware­ness of the Code’s guide­lines and its crit­i­cal role in pro­mot­ing in­tegri­ty in po­lit­i­cal cam­paign­ing.

As part of this ini­tia­tive, the Catholic Church and the Pres­by­ter­ian Church will pub­lish the full text of the Code in their re­spec­tive newslet­ters over the week­end of April 4. In ad­di­tion, the na­tion­al print me­dia is ex­pect­ed to fea­ture the Code dur­ing the week of April 7.

“The pri­ma­ry goal of the Code is to en­sure that all stake­hold­ers in the elec­tion main­tain the high­est moral prin­ci­ples and eth­i­cal stan­dards,” said a rep­re­sen­ta­tive from the Coun­cil. “This in­cludes clar­i­ty on what con­sti­tutes fair cam­paign­ing and what cross­es the line in­to un­ac­cept­able be­hav­ior.”

The Coun­cil high­light­ed both en­cour­ag­ing and con­cern­ing trends ob­served in the ear­ly days of the cam­paign sea­son. On one hand, cit­i­zens have re­port­ed heart­en­ing scenes of ca­ma­raderie—can­di­dates and sup­port­ers from op­pos­ing par­ties em­brac­ing and of­fer­ing best wish­es to one an­oth­er, demon­strat­ing a spir­it of na­tion­al uni­ty. On the oth­er hand, there have al­so been trou­bling in­stances of mis­rep­re­sen­ta­tion, mud­sling­ing, and even char­ac­ter as­sas­si­na­tion, all of which are ex­plic­it­ly pro­hib­it­ed by the Code.

Al­though the Coun­cil lacks the re­sources to mon­i­tor all so­cial me­dia ac­tiv­i­ty, it en­cour­ages the pub­lic to act as watch­dogs by re­port­ing breach­es—or com­mend­able con­duct—through What­sApp at 793-4505 or via email at in­fo@po­lit­i­calethic­stt.org.

“As we ap­proach elec­tion day, let us re­mem­ber that democ­ra­cy is strength­ened not just at the bal­lot box, but by the val­ues we up­hold in the process,” the Coun­cil urged.