CARIBBEAN TODAY


F nT U R 6


Trinidadians get ready to vote for new government in November


 PETER RICHARDS

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad -
Prime Minister Patrick
Manning leads his ruling
People's National Movement
(PNM) into Nov. 5 general
elections hoping to avoid a
repeat of the 1995 situation
when he made the bold remark
that his party would "win
alone or lose alone".
 It lost.
 This time the cards appear
to be in the PNM's favor, even
though the newly formed
Congress of the People (COP)
party, headed by the former
Central Bank Governor
Winston Dookeran, is likely to
provide the
bi,__,lI chal-
lenge to
Manning's hold '
on government
in this oil-rich
Caribbean
community
(CARICOM)
nation. Dookeran: Ready
 "We are to rumble.
ready to rum-
ble," said Dookeran, who is a
former political leader of the
main Opposition United
National Congress (UNC).
 A poll conducted by the
Barbados-based Caribbean
Development Research
Services (CADRES) indicated
that the COP poses the pri-
mary threat to the ruling party.
The poll has not been made
public here, but CADRES
director and political analyst
Peter Wickham, speaking on
television here last month, said
that a huge majority of eligible
voters favor a change of gov-
ernment from the incumbent
PNM.

CHANGE FAVORED
 The Express newspaper,
which said it had obtained a
copy of the poll, said that with
an estimated five percent mar-
gin of error, the poll has
revealed that 68.7 percent
favored a change in govern-
ment.
 The UNC, which has
entered into an alliance with a
number of small political par-
ties, has been trying to reach
an accommodation with the
COP, but their efforts have
been rebuffed. COP Chairman
Roy Augustus said the party, a
breakaway faction of the UNC
that is promising the electorate
in politics", would not be
distracted by the o.nio, of
the UNC.
 Former Attorney General
Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj,
whose resignation and accusa-
tion of corruption led to the
downfall of the UNC govern-
ment in 2001, has also appealed
for the two main Opposition
groupings to unite in an effort


to defeat the PNM.
 "All things are possible
in the fullness of time. The
forces united against the
PNM, whether those forces
be officials or individuals,
will come t, ili, r," said
Opposition Leader Kamla
Persad Bissessar, a deputy
UNC
political leader.
 The UNC and its alliance
partners have not named a
leader to take them into the
elections, relying instead on a
Council of Leaders. The lead-
ership grouping includes for-
mer Prime Minister Basdeo
Panday, who was in court last
month trying to reverse a deci-
sion by the Parliament last
year to take away the Couva
North seat he won in the 2002
general elections following his
conviction on charges of failing
to declare to the Integrity
Commission, a London bank
account he held while he
served as head of government.
 Panday has successfully
appealed against the convic-
tion, and while
the High Court
has ordered a
re-trial, the 72-
year-old veter-
an politician is
facing a num-
ber of other
charges dating Persad Bissessar:
back to the The forces will
1995-2001 come together.
period when
his UNC formed the govern-
ment.
 Panday, who has already
indicated that he intends
"dying with his booths on", has
brushed aside calls for him to
remove himself from the politi-
cal fray and allow for a possi-
ble united Opposition front.
Some media reports have gone
as far as to U_''LI that finan-
ciers of the party are behind
the moves to get Panday to
step down.

NEW SYSTEM
 The elections will be the
first since voters would be
given an opportunity to elect
41 instead of 36 parliamentari-
ans, and all three main politi-
cal parties have said they are
confident of winning sufficient
seats to govern for the next
five years.
 In the last general elections,
the PNM won 20 seats with the
UNC winning the remaining 16.
But the Opposition has been
split, with Dookeran's faction
lending support to the Manning
administration in passing critical
pieces of legislation to deal with
issues such as crime that is likely
to be a major platform agenda
in the campaign.
 Manning will lead a new
slate into the elections, having
discarded or lost to resigna-
tion, illness or court charges,


nearly half of his current legis-
lators. But Manning has told
supporters, some of whom
have openly rebelled outside
the party's headquarters in
favor of some incumbents, that
the new crop
of candidates
represents a
changing of
the guard.
 Manning
has already
outlined a
blueprint for
taking this Maharaj: Calling for
twin-island unity.
republic "into
developed
country status by 2020" and
has told supporters that the
socio-economic benefits that
they are now reaping are not
as a result of luck. He has
pointed to successive PNM
g Lr illL I1n decision to open
the markets and liberalize the
economy, provide tax conces-
sions to manufacturers and cut
back on social sector expendi-
ture.
 But the Opposition parties
have accused the government
of spending lavishly on high-
rise buildings in the capital and
other projects including a rapid
rail system that Persad
Bissessar said had been
plagued with corruption.

CONTROVERSIES
 The campaign has already
turned up a few controversies.
Manning has wondered aloud
how the COP has been able to
move from "black and white
advertisements to full color full
pa.,'s and said he is prepared
to allow for the scrutiny of his
party finances once the other
political parties agree to do the
same.
 COP has itself taken to
the airwaves on the issue of
campaign financing and the
party's campaign manager
Gerald Yetming, the former


finance minister in the UNC
government, has raised con-
cerns over media advertise-
ments purporting to come
from "independent organiza-
tions" bashing the Opposition
parties.
 The Opposition parties
have also questioned
Manning's decision to call the
polls on Nov. 5, five days
before the Hindu festival of
lights, Divali.
 Despite indicating that the
 dJai incidentally had been
 determined a long time ago,"
 Manning will have to ward off
 criticism that he was insensi-
 tive to the Indo-Trinidadian
 community for having the cam-
paign in the midst of their reli-
gious festival.
 Satnarine Maharaj, the


secretary general of the
Sanatan Dharma Maha Sabha,
the largest Hindu organization
here, reminded Manning of
what transpired when he held
called the 1995 general elec-
tions before an East Indian
festival. He lost.
 The 1.3 million population
of Trinidad and Tobago is
almost evenly divided between
the two main races here the
Afro and Indo Trinidadian.
The Electoral Boundaries
Commission (EBC), which is
spending an estimated $3.6
million in preparing for the
Nov. 5 poll, said more than
980,000 people would be eligi-
ble to vote. It did not give a
breakdown regarding race.
0


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October 2007


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