Gail Alexan­der

Don't re­sort to dirty tac­tics - and don't bribe vot­ers.

That's among a num­ber of points of ad­vice com­ing from Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar to her can­di­date team as the elec­tion cam­paign heads to­wards high­er gear af­ter to­mor­row (Fri).

Nom­i­na­tion day ex­er­cis­es to­mor­row are ex­pect­ed to be fol­lowed by a bar­rage of height­ened elec­tion ac­tiv­i­ty to­wards the Au­gust 10 gen­er­al elec­tion.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar yes­ter­day ad­vised her team af­ter she not­ed re­cent at­tacks on plat­forms of some po­lit­i­cal par­ties. She called on UNC can­di­dates to be re­spon­si­ble and re­spect­ful as they cam­paign.

"As we get in­to the mid­dle of this elec­tion cam­paign and the pres­sure starts mount­ing, I want to urge all of our UNC can­di­dates to re­main re­spect­ful, con­sid­er­ate and ho­n­ourable at all times," she said in a state­ment.

"I es­pe­cial­ly en­cour­age our new can­di­dates to not taint your­selves in neg­a­tiv­i­ty and fo­cus on the is­sues that mat­ter most to peo­ple.

"We con­tin­ue to en­cour­age all our can­di­dates to fo­cus on our plans, poli­cies and projects for im­prov­ing the lives of our cit­i­zens and set­ting a sound foun­da­tion for our fu­ture gen­er­a­tions to come."

Say­ing UNC was ready to gov­ern, Per­sad-Bisses­sar added, "Our doors are al­ways open to those wish­ing to con­tribute mean­ing­ful­ly to the de­vel­op­ment of our na­tion."

She said the fol­low­ing guide­lines are to be fol­lowed in her team's elec­tion cam­paign:

* Pub­licly con­demn vi­o­lence and or in­tim­i­da­tion against your­selves or any­one with­in your cam­paign.

* Do not en­gage in vi­o­lence or in­tim­i­da­tion your­selves, or in lan­guage or ac­tion which might lead to vi­o­lence or in­tim­i­da­tion.

* Do not pub­lish or re­peat false, defam­a­to­ry al­le­ga­tions about po­lit­i­cal op­po­nents, run a clean cam­paign.

* Co­op­er­ate with oth­er po­lit­i­cal par­ties to avoid sched­ul­ing po­lit­i­cal ac­tiv­i­ties at the same time and places.

* Do not im­pede ac­cess to el­i­gi­ble vot­ers by po­lit­i­cal op­po­nents.

* Do not de­stroy, dis­fig­ure, or re­move oth­er po­lit­i­cal par­ties' cam­paign ma­te­ri­als.

* Do not bribe el­i­gi­ble vot­ers in re­spect of the elec­tion cam­paign or vot­ing.

* Do not abuse po­si­tions of pow­er, in­flu­ence, or priv­i­lege in re­spect of the elec­tion cam­paign or vot­ing.

* Do not dis­crim­i­nate or at­tack per­sons on the ba­sis of race, sex, eth­nic­i­ty, class, gen­der, or re­li­gion in con­nec­tion with the elec­tion.

* Fa­cil­i­tate the equal par­tic­i­pa­tion and ac­cess of all per­sons to po­lit­i­cal ac­tiv­i­ties and to vote.

Fol­low at all times the rel­e­vant health guide­lines per­tain­ing to COVID-19.

* Co­op­er­ate with the elec­toral au­thor­i­ties in in­ves­ti­gat­ing is­sues and al­le­ga­tions in con­nec­tion with the elec­tions.

* Be re­spect­ful of pri­vate prop­er­ty when erect­ing and fas­ten­ing cam­paign para­pher­na­lia

* Al­ways re­spect and fol­low the law when cam­paign­ing and do not con­done any il­le­gal ac­tiv­i­ties with­in your cam­paign.

* Be mind­ful of traf­fic re­stric­tions when con­duct­ing your rel­e­vant mo­tor­cades and be con­sid­er­ate of oth­ers on the road dur­ing peak traf­fic hours.