Dr Bish­nu Ra­goonath, Chair, Coun­cil for Re­spon­si­ble Po­lit­i­cal Be­hav­iour is en­cour­ag­ing all Po­lit­i­cal lead­ers, Can­di­dates and sup­port­ers of po­lit­i­cal par­ties/can­di­dates are en­cour­aged to up­hold the sev­er­al com­mit­ments as list­ed in the Code. De­tails fol­low in this press re­lease from Dr Ra­goonath: 

As we ap­proach the end of the cam­paign lead­ing to the De­cem­ber 6, 2021 To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly elec­tions, it is ac­knowl­edged that thus far the cam­paign has been peace­ful with min­i­mal in­fringe­ments to the Code of Eth­i­cal Po­lit­i­cal Con­duct. With this back­drop, all Po­lit­i­cal lead­ers, Can­di­dates and sup­port­ers of po­lit­i­cal par­ties/can­di­dates are en­cour­aged to up­hold the sev­er­al com­mit­ments as list­ed in the Code, all of which we have be­come ac­cus­tomed to and which have de­fined our elec­tions of the past. To re­it­er­ate, these com­mit­ments are: 

♦Up­hold the Con­sti­tu­tion and the spir­it and let­ter of the laws re­lat­ing to the hold­ing of pub­lic ac­tiv­i­ties and elec­tion cam­paigns. 
♦Main­tain the high­est moral prin­ci­ples and eth­i­cal stan­dards with re­spect to their con­duct dur­ing the cam­paign, the elec­tions and the post-elec­tion pe­ri­od. 
♦Co­op­er­ate with the po­lice in main­tain­ing law and or­der dur­ing elec­tion cam­paigns. 
♦Pro­mote and en­force re­spect, tol­er­ance, har­mo­ny and peace amongst sup­port­ers in the re­main­ing hours be­fore the poll, as well as on elec­tion day and in the post-elec­tion pe­ri­od. 
♦Re­frain from prac­tices that pro­mote di­vi­sive­ness in the So­ci­ety and com­mit to the re­moval of any struc­tures (be­hav­iour­al, cul­tur­al, so­cial or or­ga­ni­za­tion­al) which re­in­force di­vi­sive­ness. 

Along­side, these com­mit­ments, par­ties sign­ing on to the Code had al­so agreed that cer­tain con­duct would be deemed pro­hib­it­ed. Again as we come to the elec­tion day, the Coun­cil would like to un­der­score some be­hav­iour and prac­tices which should be avoid­ed. Amongst these are: 

♦Not of­fer any in­duce­ment or re­ward, for ex­am­ple mon­ey, gro­ceries or oth­er ben­e­fits, to an­oth­er per­son to Vote or not to vote, or to vote or not to vote in any par­tic­u­lar way 
♦Not en­gage, re­cruit, or de­ploy any in­di­vid­ual(s) for the pur­pose of vi­o­lence, in­tim­i­da­tion or ha­rass­ment, in­clud­ing in­tim­i­da­tion by con­gre­gat­ing in groups wear­ing sim­i­lar iden­ti­fi­able colours at or near to elec­tion sta­tions on elec­tion day. 
♦Not in­dulge in neg­a­tive cam­paign­ing or ad­ver­tis­ing or any ac­tion which would bring the po­lit­i­cal process in­to dis­re­pute. 
♦Not use lan­guage or act in a way that may pro­voke vi­o­lence; or In­tim­i­date Can­di­dates, mem­bers of Par­ties, rep­re­sen­ta­tives or sup­port­ers of Par­ties or Can­di­dates, or vot­ers; or in­vite, en­cour­age or fos­ter ha­tred, re­sent­ment or any form of vi­o­lence. 
♦Not seek to as­sas­si­nate the char­ac­ter of or make defam­a­to­ry com­ments about any in­di­vid­ual, fam­i­ly, pro­fes­sion­al group or sec­tion of the com­mu­ni­ty. 

Like in every con­test, there will emerge win­ners and while the win­ners will cel­e­brate, they should en­sure that their vic­to­ry cel­e­bra­tions are tem­pered so as to en­sure that on the morn­ing of De­cem­ber 7, 2021, all cit­i­zens, win­ners, as well as losers, will hold their heads high in con­sid­er­a­tion of a well fought elec­tion. Ac­knowl­edg­ing that we will all con­tin­ue to live in our com­mon space of Trinidad and To­ba­go, let us en­sure that we live in peace and har­mo­ny. 

In the con­text of the cur­rent pan­dem­ic, the word “live” takes on spe­cial mean­ing and in this re­gard the Coun­cil would al­so like to en­cour­age all po­lit­i­cal par­ties, lead­ers, can­di­dates and sup­port­ers to be mind­ful of the health reg­u­la­tions and pro­tect your­selves, your fam­i­ly, neigh­bours, mem­bers of the com­mu­ni­ty and all cit­i­zens from the COVID 19 virus.