The Na­tion­al Trans­for­ma­tion Al­liance (NTA) says it has not with­drawn from the Coun­cil for Re­spon­si­ble Po­lit­i­cal Be­hav­iour, head­ed by Dr Bish­nu Ra­goonath.

It comes af­ter the UNC an­nounced on Fri­day morn­ing that it was with­draw­ing from the Coun­cil. The NTA says it is dis­ap­point­ed in the UNC's de­ci­sion.

In a state­ment, the NTA said they took the de­ci­sion "be­cause we

be­lieve re­spon­si­ble po­lit­i­cal be­hav­iour should be a cor­ner­stone of every po­lit­i­cal par­ty."

It went fur­ther in say­ing, "We al­so firm­ly be­lieve that the Coun­cil, de­spite its lack of puni­tive au­thor­i­ty, serves as a vi­tal plat­form to es­tab­lish a base­line of deco­rum, re­spect, and ac­count­abil­i­ty in po­lit­i­cal dis­course."

The NTA says the with­draw­al of a ma­jor po­lit­i­cal par­ty from an

en­ti­ty ded­i­cat­ed to pro­mot­ing eth­i­cal and re­spect­ful con­duct in pol­i­tics rais­es sig­nif­i­cant con­cerns, es­pe­cial­ly since over the past few months, as they en­tered in­to a coali­tion of in­ter­ests with an­oth­er po­lit­i­cal en­ti­ty.

It added that it will con­tin­ue to en­gage with all po­lit­i­cal en­ti­ties, in­clud­ing the UNC and PNM, with re­spect and de­cen­cy.