The Coun­cil for Re­spon­si­ble Po­lit­i­cal Be­hav­iour has start­ed to mon­i­tor ac­tiv­i­ties re­lat­ed to all po­lit­i­cal par­ties, can­di­dates and sup­port­ers af­ter the April 28 date for the Gen­er­al Elec­tion was an­nounced.

It has called on cit­i­zens to re­port any breach­es so that they can be in­ves­ti­gat­ed.

In a state­ment yes­ter­day, the coun­cil chaired by Dr Bish­nu Ra­goonath, said the mon­i­tor­ing is to en­sure ad­her­ence to the Code of Eth­i­cal Po­lit­i­cal Con­duct.

The code, which has been in ex­is­tence since 2014, calls on po­lit­i­cal par­ties, can­di­dates and sup­port­ers to par­tic­i­pate in the elec­tion cam­paign in a man­ner that up­holds the in­tegri­ty of the elec­toral process by main­tain­ing the high­est moral prin­ci­ples and eth­i­cal stan­dards, whilst avoid­ing pro­hib­it­ed con­duct.

The coun­cil ex­plained it mon­i­tors the elec­tion cam­paign pe­ri­od pri­mar­i­ly through pub­lic com­plaints or re­port­ed breach­es of the code and has in­vit­ed the pub­lic to sub­mit pos­si­ble vi­o­la­tions.

It added a record of com­plaints is kept and all will be in­ves­ti­gat­ed prompt­ly. The coun­cil said it will re­port on its de­lib­er­a­tions to the na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty week­ly.

In Jan­u­ary, the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress with­drew from the coun­cil.

Aside from Ra­goonath, the oth­er coun­cil mem­bers are Ralph Pe­ter, vice-chair, Leela Ramdeen, sec­re­tary; Rev Joy Ab­dul-Mo­han; Dr Bev­er­ly Beck­les; Gabriel Faria; Dr Gabrielle Ho­sein and Dr Rev Carlisle Pem­ber­to.