A Partnership for National Unity, (APNU) today explained its absence from the signing of the Ethnic Relations Commission’s code of conduct for political parties contesting the upcoming elections.

The Code of Conduct was signed by four contesting political parties—The People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C), the Alliance For Change (AFC), We Invest In Nationhood (WIN) and the Assembly for Liberty and Prosperity.

By signing the document, the parties have committed themselves to safeguarding peace, order and respect for the democratic process.

The APNU and Forward Guyana Movement did not sign the Code of Conduct.

In a statement today, the APNU said while it believes in peaceful and respectful campaigning, it does not believe the ERC is the correct agency to oversee such an initiative to hold parties accountable

“Let us be abundantly clear that while we believe in the value of a Code of Conduct on peaceful, respectful, and lawful campaigning, we have no confidence in the impartiality and independence of the Ethnic Relations Commission. Under the PPP government, the ERC has become merely a political stooge. Not surprisingly, it has accordingly failed to perform its many constitutional functions,” the APNU said in a statement.

According to the party, the ERC is  unfit to serve as the sponsor of a Code of Conduct on peaceful election campaigning and said described the signing under the agency’s command as a political gimmick that will do little to promote free and fair elections and to serve the interests of the Guyanese people.

“The APNU Coalition hereby pledges to the nation that we will conduct our campaign in a peaceful, lawful, respectful manner – as we already are. We embrace the fact that Guyanese have the constitutional freedom of expression, association and assembly. We embrace the fact that Guyanese must be able to freely vote for the party of their choice,” the party said.

The party said should it take government it will transform the ERC to function in a manner that will allow it to carry out its constitutional mandate.

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