Omar Anderson, Gleaner Writer
PEOPLE'S NATIONAL Party (PNP) General Secretary, Senator Burchell Whiteman, says the party is expected to finalise discussions on the revised Political Code of Conduct this month.
Senator Whiteman told The Gleaner yesterday that the revised document, which incorporates aspects of the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica's (PSOJ) 2005 Emancipation Park Declaration, has been circulated among members of the PNP's Executive Committee.
He said the party's parliamentary group should also now be receiving its copies of the document.
"We expect by the end of the month to finalise our discussions," Senator Whiteman said. "But there are one or two areas of the draft document we might want to clarify."
In May, the PSOJ issued its Declaration of Emancipation Park which, among other things, gave politicians an ultimatum to denounce any ties with
criminals.
DOCUMENT SIGNING
Several politicians insisted they would not sign the document as the statement implied they were in collusion with criminals. They also stated that signing the PSOJ document would set a precedent for other interest groups to make future demands.
It was then decided that aspects of the Emancipation Park Declaration would be included in the Code of Political Conduct, since both documents shared similar clauses.
However, the Opposition Jamaica Labour Party has already expressed its dissatisfaction with the revised code as drafted and submitted by Political Ombudsman Herro Blair.
The 2002 Political Conduct of Conduct was signed between the two major political parties to dictate how parties and their supporters should conduct political affairs.
