POLITICAL Ombudsman Bishop Herro Blair says both major political parties — the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) and the People’s National Party (PNP) — have conceded that they have members they are unable to control in their efforts to abide by the Political Code of Conduct, but vowed to ensure the rules are obeyed as the country prepares for a general election.

The ombudsman said he would not be daunted in using his efforts to enforce the code which sets out appropriate behaviour for politicians, including non-violence and non-intimidation, safety of property, public utterances and freedom of access.

Speaking Thursday at a training session to create awareness of the Political Code of Conduct among stakeholders, ahead of the impending election, Bishop Blair said he recently met with the general secretaries of both the JLP and PNP and they both admitted that they had difficult individuals in their ranks.

“Both of them conceded that they have members in their party that they cannot touch. They, are in their words, ‘time bombs’, and therefore sometimes when I make rulings they have to set aside and try to prevent the time bombs from going off,” Blair said.

The training workshop at the Planning Institute of Jamaica in Kingston included liaison officers for the political ombudsman’s office from each division of the police force; representatives from the Social Development Commission, the Citizen’s Action for Free and Fair Elections, the Peace Management Initiative and Church Umbrella groups.

Chairman and executive director of the National Integrity Action Limited Professor Trevor Munroe said the workshop was the first in a series of meetings involving various stakeholders including the political candidates about the code of conduct.

He said the English-speaking Caribbean was the only region in the world which did not have some kind of regulation of political campaign financing, but said a significant step forward was expected in this matter shortly.