By Raffique Shah
December 14, 2013
Among the three of them, Basdeo Panday, Jack Warner and Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj have accumulated 220 years on earth. You would think that these three geezers, having experienced a spread of political permutations, from the crown colony system and colonialism to independence and republicanism, would have also accumulated the wisdom to discern that they have long passed their political-expiry dates.
Continue reading Bas, Ram and Jack
By Stephen Kangal
November 19, 2013
It is now patently clear that the mathematically-challenged eleventh hour imposition of the hapless PR formula based on the infamous 25% threshold without undertaking the requisite public consultations by the PPG has crystallized into a pure, unmitigated electoral disaster that back-fired big time. It consigned thousands of burgesses/ electoral districts to be without representation in their respective local government councils.
Continue reading ‘Democracy-Strengthening’ PR An Abject Disaster
By Raffique Shah
November 17, 2013
Much to the dismay of its detractors, the People’s National Movement (PNM) bounces back like the proverbial bad penny almost ritually every five years since it first lost an election in 1986. In the current political scenario, unless the 57-year-old party shoots itself in the head, the incumbents discover some magical elixir, or a mass uprising, a kind of “Trinidad spring”, occurs and spawns something new and exciting, the PNM will return to power in 2015.
Continue reading Prove me wrong, PNM
By Stephen Kangal
November 11, 2013
Being a classic marginal seat, Monday’s St. Joseph Constituency (SJC) bye-election results have encapsulated and mirrored the psycho-political underpinnings of the changing electoral dynamics as well as of the traditional ethnic moorings impacting on and progressively shaping the national political/electoral psyche- a microcosm of the macrocosm.
Continue reading St Joseph Embodied the National Electoral Psyche
By Raffique Shah
November 10, 2013
Many readers scoffed at my suggestion in last week’s column that a rapprochement between UNC/COP and the ILP was a strong possibility in the run-up to the next general elections, due no later than August 2015. I imagine diehard supporters on both sides of the divide feel deeply wounded by the abuse their leaders hurled at each other during the three campaigns conducted since Jack Warner broke with the United National Congress (UNC) and formed the Independent Liberal Party (ILP).
Continue reading Facing Elections Nightmare
By Andre Bagoo and Clint Chan Tack
November 05, 2013 – newsday.co.tt
THE PEOPLE’s National Movement (PNM) candidate Terrence Deyalsingh was last night declared the winner of the St Joseph bye-election, but only after the country was taken to a nail- biting finish for what was expected to be the last election in a historic year.
Deyalsingh’s nearest rival was the United National Congress (UNC)’s Ian Alleyne who, at some points in the night, appeared in the lead. The Independent Liberal Party (ILP)’s Om Lalla managed the third largest share of votes but was not really in the contest.
Continue reading PNM WINS AGAIN
By Stephen Kangal
November 04, 2013
It is very disturbing that the St. Joseph bye-election was fixed for November 4 by a Government whose real base is the Divali aficionados. The requisite consideration for the simple and well-known fact that the intensity of the pre-election campaigning would coincide with, distract from and up-stage the well-known calendar of pre-divali centralized festivities and regional/village observances was carelessly not factored into the decision-making scenario.
Continue reading Bye-Elections Up-Staged and Politicised Divali
By Raffique Shah
November 03, 2013
When the votes are counted tomorrow night, the St Joseph by-election will bring to closure what may well be the most torturous year in the electoral history of this country. Two scheduled elections—the THA in January and local government last month—and two unscheduled by-elections have left us numb from campaign punishment.
Continue reading Vengeance of Moko
By Stephen Kangal
October 30, 2013
It appears that the UNC has no institutional memory relating to the impact of a third force in adversely affecting its electoral performance. Its well-known experience of 2007 and its course correction strategy of 2010 with the COP ought to be very instructive and to determine how it must act to avoid splitting the votes like split peas especially when that third force originates from amongst its traditional base.
Continue reading UNC Lacks Institutional Memory on Vote-Splitting
By Dr Noel Kalicharan
October 29, 2013
This article does not concern itself with the pros and cons of proportional representation (PR). I write in my capacity as a student of mathematics, not as a Commissioner on the EBC.
Let me begin by posing a question and I want you to answer it without agonising too much about what the answer should be. Just go with your common sense notion about what you think PR is meant to accomplish.
Continue reading The clause that killed PR