PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC -The principle opposition social gathering, the United Nationwide Congress (UNC), says it has withdrawn from the Council for Accountable Political Behaviour. The Council was the brainchild of Roman Catholic Archbishop Emeritus Joseph Harris CSSp and was chaired by political analyst and College of the West Indies (UWI) lecturer Dr Bishnu Ragoonath.
It was shaped in 2014 and goals to take care of a Code of Ethics in politics that upholds the best ethical ideas.
In a short January 30, 2025, letter to Ragoonath, UNC chairman Davendranath Tancoo wrote that the UNC “hereby withdraws from the Council for Accountable Political Behaviour.”
The social gathering gave no causes for its resolution, saying it “stays dedicated to upholding the Structure and the Legal guidelines of Trinidad and Tobago.”
Ragoonath has since confirmed receipt of the letter and mentioned he was given no motive for the withdrawal.
In August final yr, Ragoonath mentioned that since 2016, the Council had been working with a complete finances of TT$75,000 (One TT greenback = 0.16 cents) and had sufficient cash to proceed minimal operations till the tip of 2025.
Ragoonath, talking through the Enhancing Moral and Efficient Protection workshop, hosted by the Media Institute of the Caribbean, the British Excessive Fee Port of Spain, and the Trinidad and Tobago Chamber of Trade and Commerce, mentioned the Council had developed a code designed to make sure that political events observe civilized, integrity-filled conduct throughout their campaigning.
5 political events later endorsed it, together with the ruling Folks’s Nationwide Motion and the UNC.
The code consists of the next: events shouldn’t make false or defamatory allegations in print or speech in reference to an election concerning any social gathering, its candidates, representatives, or members.
The events also needs to not search to assassinate the character of or make defamatory feedback about any particular person, household, skilled group, or part of the neighborhood.
They need to additionally not abuse a place of energy, privilege, or affect, together with parental, patriarchal, conventional, or employment authority, to affect the conduct or end result of an election.
The events also needs to not take pleasure in unfavourable campaigning, promoting, or any motion that might convey the political course of into disrepute and may preserve the best ethical ideas and moral requirements with respect to their conduct.
Basic elections will probably be held right here later this yr.
