The Coun­cil for Re­spon­si­ble Po­lit­i­cal Be­hav­iour will com­mence im­me­di­ate mon­i­tor­ing of po­lit­i­cal par­ties’ ad­her­ence to the Code of Eth­i­cal Po­lit­i­cal Con­duct in time for the up­com­ing 2019 Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment elec­tions.

In a me­dia re­lease on Sep­tem­ber 11, Dr Bish­nu Ra­goonath, chair of the coun­cil said "A re­con­sti­tut­ed Coun­cil for Re­spon­si­ble Po­lit­i­cal Be­hav­iour met on Mon­day, Sep­tem­ber 9, 2019, and agreed to im­me­di­ate­ly com­mence mon­i­tor­ing and eval­u­a­tion of po­lit­i­cal par­ties’ ad­her­ence to the Code of Eth­i­cal Po­lit­i­cal Con­duct in re­la­tion to the up­com­ing 2019 Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment elec­tions.

"The orig­i­nal Code of Eth­i­cal Po­lit­i­cal Con­duct (2014) was signed by all po­lit­i­cal par­ties that con­test­ed the 2015 gen­er­al elec­tion and the 2016 Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment elec­tions. The re­vised (2019) ver­sion of the Code can be found on the Coun­cil’s web­site at www.po­lit­i­calethic­stt.org.

"In ac­cor­dance with the Code, po­lit­i­cal par­ties com­mit "to main­tain the high­est moral prin­ci­ples and eth­i­cal stan­dards with re­spect to their con­duct dur­ing the cam­paign” as well as “to up­hold the in­tegri­ty of the elec­toral process.”"

He said the coun­cil was tasked with mon­i­tor­ing and eval­u­at­ing ad­her­ence to the code and re­port­ing to the pub­lic on the con­duct of the par­ties and the can­di­dates dur­ing an elec­tion pe­ri­od.

Ra­goonath said with the cur­rent lo­cal gov­ern­ment term due to ex­pire with­in the next three months, the elec­tion pe­ri­od had start­ed, and in this con­text, the coun­cil will mon­i­tor and re­port on the be­hav­iour of po­lit­i­cal par­ties.

He said in pur­su­ing the task of mon­i­tor­ing the cam­paign, the coun­cil in­vit­ed mem­bers of the pub­lic to re­port any pos­si­ble in­fringe­ment or breach­es of the code.

Mem­bers of the pub­lic can send such com­plaints by email to in­fo@po­lit­i­calethic­stt.org, or by mail to the Coun­cil of Re­spon­si­ble Po­lit­i­cal be­hav­iour, c/o Arch­bish­op House, 27 Mar­aval Road, Port-of-Spain.

Ra­goonath said the coun­cil was aware that sev­er­al par­ties had not yet signed on to the code.

He said, there­fore, the coun­cil was invit­ing all po­lit­i­cal par­ties that were not yet sig­na­to­ries, to a sign­ing of the code at Arch­bish­op’s House, 27 Mar­aval Road Port-of-Spain on Sep­tem­ber 23, 2019 at 11 am.