• Latest
It’s Now Budget Implementation Phase

Too Much Pep

5 years ago
Health Ministry monitoring reports of Monkeypox outbreak overseas

Health Ministry monitoring reports of Monkeypox outbreak overseas

14 hours ago
Grenada moves a step closer to providing CT scans

Grenada moves a step closer to providing CT scans

14 hours ago
Tanteen Road Closes At Noon

Temporary road closure: Mt Millette Road

14 hours ago
ECTEL Career Opportunity: Managing Director

ECTEL Career Opportunity: Managing Director

19 hours ago
Vacancy: Project and Quality Assurance Assistant

Vacancy: Project and Quality Assurance Assistant

19 hours ago
Actress Aisha Hinds’ epic wedding weekend in Grenada

Actress Aisha Hinds’ epic wedding weekend in Grenada

22 hours ago
No need to panic over shark sightings

Lifeguards commended for excellent service

2 days ago
Joint approach to fighting gender-based violence

Joint approach to fighting gender-based violence

2 days ago
CHORES Returns to Grenada in October

CHORES Group returns to Grenada

2 days ago
International Day for Biological Diversity 22 May

International Day for Biological Diversity 22 May

3 days ago
Claims of coronavirus at SGU designed to create fear and panic

Covid-19 update: Grenada Dashboard 20 May 2022

3 days ago
Cambridge GCE Registration Period

Commonwealth of Learning Skills for Work Programme

5 days ago
NOW Grenada

Main Header Ad 468x60

  • Front Page
  • Categories
    • General News
      • All
      • Agriculture & Fisheries
      • Arts & Culture
      • Business
      • Education
      • Environment
      • Health
      • History
      • Lifestyle
      • Law
      • Politics
      • Technology
      • Travel & Tourism
      • Weather
      • Youth
    • Sports
      • All
      • Athletics
      • Cricket
      • Football
      • Watersports
    • Community
      • All
      • Tribute
    • Crime
    • Features
      • All
      • Today in History
    • Opinion/Commentary
    • Press Releases
      • All
      • Advertisements
      • Notices
  • Video
  • Notices & Vacancies
  • Advertise
  • Contact Us
No Result
View All Result
  • Front Page
  • Categories
    • General News
      • All
      • Agriculture & Fisheries
      • Arts & Culture
      • Business
      • Education
      • Environment
      • Health
      • History
      • Lifestyle
      • Law
      • Politics
      • Technology
      • Travel & Tourism
      • Weather
      • Youth
    • Sports
      • All
      • Athletics
      • Cricket
      • Football
      • Watersports
    • Community
      • All
      • Tribute
    • Crime
    • Features
      • All
      • Today in History
    • Opinion/Commentary
    • Press Releases
      • All
      • Advertisements
      • Notices
  • Video
  • Notices & Vacancies
  • Advertise
  • Contact Us
No Result
View All Result
NOW Grenada
No Result
View All Result

Article Header

Too Much Pep

This story was posted 5 years ago
10 November 2017
in OPINION/COMMENTARY, Politics
3 min. read
Caribupdate
Share

by Caribupdate Weekly

Everywhere in life, one always could find exceedingly good ideas that, unfortunately with the passage of time, would have gone bad; extremely bad. One such perfect example in Grenada, in the view of our newspaper, is this effort started in the 1990s that ostensibly was aimed at ensuring best behaviour by all candidates – and all political parties – participating in general elections campaigns in a bid to winning the polls and forming the government of our tri-island State of Grenada, Carriacou and Petite Martinique.

On the face of it, one doubts there’s anyone across our fair nation who would not want to subscribe to what is popularly known as the ‘Code of Political Conduct.’

The code is drawn up by a coalition of groups calling themselves Civil Society Organisations (CSO). The CSO includes representatives, such as chairman of the Conference of Churches, Archdeacon Christian Glasgow, who have steered clear of Grenada’s political ‘taebay’’ and ‘commess’ and have kept their politics to themselves. But the uncomfortable truth is, the CSO could better be described as a partisan PAC — Political Action Committee.

Many of the CSO’s frontline advocates are politically exposed persons (PEP); well-known for shilling in the political debates of Grenada; and conspicuous by the deafening silence and lack of public advocacy during the 2008–2013 term in office of the National Democratic Congress (NDC). By and large, they saw no evil, heard no evil or spoke no evil during that four–and–a–half–year span, except to condemn and criticise whichever side they disliked in the NDC’s internal party squabbles.

In fact, the real purpose and intent of the CSO – whether its interest is in being a genuine watchdog for good political behaviour during our election campaigning — were thrown into question 9 years ago. Back then, Franka Bernardine was a CSO representative, seemingly fulfilling the role of watchdog for elections that were scheduled for July 2008.

The NDC, headed at the time by Tillman Thomas, ousted the New National Party to form the government with an 11–4 majority. And, lo and behold, Mrs Bernardine was no longer keeping up appearances. She bolted to the NDC, accepting an offer from Prime Minister Thomas to be a senator and the Minister for Education and Human Resource Development in his government.

As a newspaper, Caribupdate Weekly supports all and every measure, including police work and the presence here of independent observers, to ensure that our polling is free, fair and transparent. We wholly agree that decency and civil conduct should prevail during the campaign and after the polls are closed; and that the results should be respected – whether one party wins all 15 seats or none at all.

So, clearly, we believe that it is useful to have a body like the CSO. However, it’s our strong opinion that too many in the currently constituted CSO are compromised politically and are politically exposed persons. Their own conscience and intelligence should inform them that in order for the group, and its election watchdog mission to work as effectively as they would like it to be, that it would make sense for them to recuse themselves from this particular civil society exercise.

Several young people participated in Monday’s signing ceremony of the latest Code of Conduct. Perhaps, these young people could form the nucleus of new CSO leadership to monitor political conduct at future general elections in Grenada.

NOW Grenada is not responsible for the opinions, statements or media content presented by contributors. In case of abuse, click here to report.
Tags: advocacycivil society organisationscoalitioncode of political conductcsoelection
Next Post
The Grenada Community Library Has a true home at last!

Grenada Community Library Celebrates 3rd Anniversary

Comment on post Cancel reply

Please enter your valid email address.
Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Home Sidebar NP 300x250

© NOW Grenada. All Rights Reserved. Published by Aqua Design Inc. | Terms of Use | Privacy Policy

No Result
View All Result
  • Front Page
  • Categories
    • General News
      • All
      • Agriculture & Fisheries
      • Arts & Culture
      • Business
      • Education
      • Environment
      • Health
      • History
      • Lifestyle
      • Law
      • Politics
      • Technology
      • Travel & Tourism
      • Weather
      • Youth
    • Sports
      • All
      • Athletics
      • Cricket
      • Football
      • Watersports
    • Community
      • All
      • Tribute
    • Crime
    • Features
      • All
      • Today in History
    • Opinion/Commentary
    • Press Releases
      • All
      • Advertisements
      • Notices
  • Video
  • Notices & Vacancies
  • Advertise
  • Contact Us

Copyright NOW Grenada

We are using cookies to give you the best experience on our website.

You can find out more about which cookies we are using or switch them off in settings. Visit our Privacy Policy | Terms of Use.

Powered by  GDPR Cookie Compliance
Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful. Visit our Privacy Policy | Terms of Use.

Strictly Necessary Cookies

Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.

If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again.