BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – LEADER of St. Kitts’ main opposition party the People’s Action Movement (PAM), Lindsay F. Grant has promised that all his candidates would sign and abide by a Code of Conduct during the fast-approaching general elections.
General Elections are constitutionally due to take place within the next seven months and political parties across the Federation are well into the process of rallying support from their constituents.
The public meetings, by popular opinion, have been characterised by ubiquitous character assassination, mud-slinging and political rhetoric, and have given rise to calls for politicians to refrain from engaging in such activities.
In 1995, a Code of Conduct was constructed by the Christian Councils, Evangelical Association and the Chamber of Industry and Commerce (CIC) and was recently revised. These organisations have called on political candidates to sign on to the Code as a means of garnering a spirit of camaraderie between politicians and supporters of the different political parties.
Grant, speaking at a recent press conference held by his party, made a similar call for all candidates for political parties as well as independent candidates to consent to abide by the Code.
In making the call, the PAM Leader, made specific reference to what he termed a “violent, baseless attack” on the character of his Deputy Political Leader Eugene Hamilton.
“This,” he said, “has caused us to be very open to calls by the Christian Council and the Evangelical Association and the Chamber of Industry and Commerce to act as arbiters of a Code of Conduct governing the general elections whenever they are called.
“We are calling on the PM and the St. Kitts-Nevis Labour Party (SKNLP), the Nevis Reformation Party (NRP), the Concerned Citizens Movement (CCM) and all independent candidates to sign on to the Code of Conduct in the hope that the ideals of Christian conduct and a high standard of moral and ethical behaviour will provide the backdrop for free and fair general elections.”
Grant assured that every candidate of the PAM “will sign our own Code of Conduct - Code of Ethics - a copy of which will be available in all of our constituency offices”.
His submission was that his party “has never involved in and will not be indulging in the baseless mud-slinging, abusive language or character assassination that seems to pollute the outgoing government’s platform”, and encouraged that individuals who aspire to positions of leadership should lead by example.
