The Prime Minister is of the view that the Council for Responsible Political Behaviour is unethical and needs to be ignored.
The council monitors and deliberates on the conduct of politicians which is then made public. It monitors media reports and also invites the public to report any breaches of the code of ethics.
In a Facebook post yesterday, Dr Keith Rowley stated, “An ethical council without ethics and steeped in bias is to be ignored for what it is.”
The PM’s line was in retaliation to the independent organisation’s ruling that it found that the People’s National Movement (PNM) and its leader had breached the code of ethics.
They said Rowley had breached the code of ethics twice during campaigning for the August 14 Local Government Elections.
However, the chairman of the council Dr Bishnu Ragoonath, in a GML report, said he was anticipating the backlash from the Prime Minister.
He said: “He (Rowley) could dismiss it now saying the council is unethical and steeped in bias, that is his position. Had we said something about the UNC or the NTA we probably would have gotten kudos for it.”
The council includes Dr Ragoonath as chairman, Ralph Peter as deputy chairman, Leela Ramdeen as secretary, Dr Eastlyn Mckenzie, Dr Olabisi Kuboni, Dr Gabrielle Hosein, Dr Beverly Ann-Marie Beckles and Prof Carlisle Pemberton.