By Raffique Shah
March 08, 2015
The bell has rung, the gates are open and the campaign for general elections 2015 is underway. Over the next six months, political parties that matter and those that don’t will spend an estimated $300 million in a frenetic bid to be elected or re-elected to power. The stakes are high: by the end of this fiscal year, the incumbent administration will have spent $337 billion during its five years in office.
Continue reading Buying and selling government
By Michael Harris
March 09, 2015 – trinidadexpress.com
I must confess that I was taken completely by surprise with the news reports last week confirming that the police had received “voluminous” information from Internet service provider Google on the emailgate issue and that the alleged e-mails in the matter were being analysed to determine their authenticity.
Continue reading The spectre of emailgate
By Laurel V Williams
March 09, 2015 – newsday.co.tt
Movement for Social Justice (MSJ) political leader David Abdulah has dispelled speculation that his party would be joining forces with other political parties in the upcoming general elections scheduled for later this year.
Instead, he said the MSJ had ‘conversations’ with individuals in TT “who are equally upset about what is taking place in the country”.
Continue reading MSJ to fight elections alone
By Raffique Shah
February 28, 2015
A political volcano has erupted with full force, spewing rocks, ash, lava and fetid gases across Trinidad and Tobago’s landscape. But even as the explosion demolishes structures and changes the electoral topography, the political seismologists and volcanologists, seemingly in stupor, pretend that all is well.
Continue reading Political volcano erupts
By Marion O’Callaghan
March 02, 2015 – newsday.co.tt
I WONDER how many people noticed that Ernie Ross, of perhaps one of the most important advertising firms in the country, was reported present at that meeting with Gary Griffith which, in retrospect, was an important factor in the collapse of the Prime Minister’s then Cabinet and the collapse of COP as we knew it? This is not surprising: we are after all not very far from a general election.
Continue reading The spin doctors
By Raffique Shah
February 22, 2015
Now that the Carnival is over, we can expect electioneering to intensify, with a maximum of seven months to go before the general election is held. In fact, the ruling People’s Partnership coalition has grabbed a Carnival spillover, photographs of PNM leader Keith Rowley “wining” with a young Indian woman, as ammunition for use in campaigning.
Since the video and photos surfaced late Carnival Tuesday, the pro-UNC blogs have been hammering away at Rowley, dubbing him a “dirty old man” and worse in the hope that some mud will stick. I don’t think it will. The girl has publicly said she had a great Carnival, wine included, and to those who lambaste her and Rowley, she proclaimed boldly, “I hate racial people.”
Continue reading Which party will right these wrongs?
By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
February 10, 2015
The Trinidad Guardian, it seems, is worried about the PNM’s future, our democracy and the quality of postcolonial democracy in societies such as ours all because the PNM rejected the candidacy of Penny Beckles, a good friend, and the possibility that Patrick Manning will suffer a similar fate.
Continue reading The Politics of Spite
By Raffique Shah
February 08, 2015
I sense that Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar has cast her political fate to the wind, doing what she thinks she needs to with mere months to go before a general election. I suspect, too, that she no longer heeds her advisers, that she acts of her own accord, and will continue to do so for as long as she remains captain of the badly listing pirogue, the SS UNC-2.
Continue reading The political executioner strikes…again
Griffith threatens to walk
By Renuka Singh
February 02, 2015 – guardian.co.tt
National Security Minister Gary Griffith is threatening to quit in the face of scathing press release issued by Communication Minister Vasant Bharath yesterday accused him of making false claims and compromising the integrity of Cabinet. Bharath was referring to reports that Griffith claimed he was pressured by his Cabinet colleagues not support a criminal complaint by Police Complaints Authority Director David West.
Continue reading Griffith threatens to walk – AG to resign
Express Editorial
February 01, 2015 – trinidadexpress.com
“The standing of the Attorney General is not the only consideration Ms Persad-Bissessar is obliged to weigh. If, indeed, Mr Griffith had been aware of illegality even suspected of being engaged in or proposed by the Attorney General, he should not himself have waited until now to be exposed as someone in the know. His own fitness for office is now at least open to question.
“Finally, that it has taken nearly three months for Mr West, a lawyer, to report to the relevant authorities some illegality he might have suspected is itself troublingly questionable.
Continue reading AG must step down: first act in rare drama