Council seeing clean campaigns ahead of THA election

Even though not all po­lit­i­cal par­ties have signed the Code of Eth­i­cal Po­lit­i­cal Con­duct, the Coun­cil for Re­spon­si­ble Po­lit­i­cal Be­hav­iour says all can­di­dates and par­ties con­test­ing the To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly elec­tions are, so far, be­hav­ing in keep­ing with its prin­ci­ples.

In a me­dia re­lease is­sued to­day, the Coun­cil re­port­ed that at its first week­ly meet­ing since the mon­i­tor­ing pe­ri­od be­gan, it ob­served that par­ties and can­di­dates ap­pear to be up­hold­ing the in­tegri­ty of the cam­paign ahead of the Jan­u­ary 12, 2026, elec­tion.

The Coun­cil said po­lit­i­cal par­ties have pub­licly in­di­cat­ed their in­ten­tion to run clean cam­paigns in the lead-up to polling day.

All po­lit­i­cal par­ties were in­vit­ed to sign the Code at a tele­vised cer­e­mo­ny in To­ba­go on De­cem­ber 23. How­ev­er, on­ly two of the four par­ties con­test­ing the elec­tion par­tic­i­pat­ed. The Coun­cil said the in­vi­ta­tion to sign re­mains open, and par­ties can still arrange to do so through Coun­cil mem­ber Cur­tis Williams at the To­ba­go Di­vi­sion of the Trinidad and To­ba­go Cham­ber of In­dus­try and Com­merce.

The Coun­cil al­so ac­knowl­edged re­ports that some con­duct on so­cial me­dia may be in­con­sis­tent with the Code. It said it does not have the ca­pac­i­ty to mon­i­tor all on­line ac­tiv­i­ty and re­lies on mem­bers of the pub­lic to re­port pos­si­ble vi­o­la­tions.

Com­plaints can be sub­mit­ted via What­sApp at 793-4505 or by email to in­fo@po­lit­i­calethic­stt.org.

The full Code is avail­able on the Coun­cil’s web­site at

https://www.po­lit­i­calethic­stt.org/code.

The To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly elec­tion will take place on Mon­day, Jan­u­ary 12, 2026. Forty-two can­di­dates are con­test­ing the polls, ac­cord­ing to the Elec­tions and Bound­aries Com­mis­sion.

Four po­lit­i­cal par­ties have sub­mit­ted can­di­dates. The Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment and the To­ba­go Peo­ple’s Par­ty are con­test­ing 15 seats each; the In­no­v­a­tive De­mo­c­ra­t­ic Al­liance has 11 can­di­dates; and Uni­ty of the Peo­ple has one.

The Coun­cil said the Code calls on po­lit­i­cal par­ties and sup­port­ers to avoid dis­crim­i­na­to­ry cam­paign­ing, false or defam­a­to­ry al­le­ga­tions, char­ac­ter as­sas­si­na­tion, and crit­i­cism of can­di­dates’ pri­vate lives un­re­lat­ed to pub­lic du­ties.

“Up­hold­ing the in­tegri­ty of the elec­tion process chal­lenges all po­lit­i­cal par­ties and their sup­port­ers to abide by the car­di­nal eth­i­cal prin­ci­ples of the Code,” the Coun­cil said.