The Council for Responsible Political Behaviour has so far received just under 50 complaints and there’s a “good chance” it may also be looking at Independent Liberal Party leader Jack Warner’s statements, says council chairman Dr Bishnu Ragoonath.
He confirmed the situation on Thursday when asked about the complaint sent to the council by United National Congress (UNC) deputy leader Dr Roodal Moonilal about a social media posting which claimed he had a “palatial” house under construction in Gulf View, San Fernando. Moonilal said this was false, but it was being repeated on the Facebook page of a People’s National Movement (PNM) candidate.
Ragoonath said Moonilal’s letter was set to the council’s secretariat but he hadn’t seen it yet.
“Any complaint must come before the (11-member) council and they’ll determine what happens, our next meeting is Monday after next,” said Ragoonath.
“Complaints so far come from across the board, mainly citizens with concerns about certain things. The complaints we had were about previous meetings but there was nothing we could have claimed as signficant breach of the code.”
On the utterences filling the political landscape, he said, “Up to our last meeting (on Monday) held we felt the leaders were acting responsibly.”
Asked if the council was looking at modus operandi of embattled ILP leader and his controversial allegations, tapes (which some have disputed) and insinuations, Ragoonath said, “not just yet, but there’s a good chance we’d be looking at what he’s been saying as this may be the basis of complaints we may get, but I can’t say if we will.”
Ragoonath said he’d heard about complaints regarding remarks on the recent PNM Belmont platform. He added, “Our challenge is to determine what could be deemed political picong as opposed to insults and whether politicians are playing to the crowd or being responsible—that has to be the consideration.”