Category Archives: Elections

Elections, General T&T, International, Politics, Protest

Election an illusion of power

By Raffique Shah
July 01, 2020

Raffique ShahIt’s difficult to get a good grasp of what’s happening on the ground regarding the general election, which will be held in the next three months. It seems that Covid-19, the virus that has impacted the world like nothing else in history, and fundamentally changed the way we live to the extent that we have coined virtually a new lexicon to comprehend its effects, said virus has relegated the election to a side-show, almost a non-event.
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Elections, General T&T, PNM, Politics, Racism Watch

Be Careful How You Treat Black People

By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
June 29, 2020

“No man can put a chain about the ankle of his fellow man, without finding the other end of it about his own neck.”

—Frederick Douglass

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeFor the past three weeks, the world’s attention has been transfixed by the racial tensions that engulfed the United States. We, in T&T may have been spared “the most vulgar displays of systemic racism” as the prime minister said but, as the old people say: “What miss yo’ ent pass yo.”

The massive resistance against the racism that engulfed the US has to do with how white people and their government treat black people on a day-to-day basis. In T&T I am not sure that our government and those in power are treating its black citizens as they should. An immediate example is how PNM’s Screening Committee treated (and is treating) Robert Le Hunte because he took “a principled stance” on an important issue.
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Caribbean, CARICOM, Elections, General T&T, Guyana, Racism Watch

Granger Bent On Using Caricom Team to “Robber- Stamp” His Coup

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By Stephen Kangal
March 17, 2020

Stephen KangalIt is very clear that incumbent Guyanese President David Granger’s current agenda is to use the third- appointed Caricom Observer but low level Team to rubber-stamp and add some “legitimacy” to his virtual “coup” attempt of the Guyana Elections 2020.

One must appreciate that this intervention Team was hurriedly constituted by current Caricom Chairman, Mia Mottley after all the accredited Observer Missions that witnessed the conduct of the March 2 elections as well as the three recounts of the Region Four poll, unanimously criticised that ‘process’ used by Returning Officer (RO) Vraimont Mingo as being illegal and lacking in both credibility and transparency.
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Caribbean, Elections, General T&T, Guyana, PNM, Politics

T&T’s Foreign Policy on Guyana Elections in Shambles

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By Stephen Kangal
March 10, 2020

Stephen KangalIn the absence of Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley from T&T the foreign policy position and posturing on Guyana today seems to be in total shambles, nonsensical if not very contradictory and inconsistent at worst.

Its policy of detached non-interference that gained traction in the Maduro political crisis in Venezuela cannot be applied willy -nilly to the current stalemate in finalising the official results of the Guyanase elections for three unique reasons:
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Elections, General T&T, PNM, Politics, Racism Watch

Black betrayal

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By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
March 09, 2020

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeAFTER my article appeared in the Express last Sunday I received the following note: “Gd Mr Cudjoe. I have been reading your articles in the newspapers for a while and I want to invite to come and take a look at East Port of Spain where we live. My name is Aaron St John. I am 41 years old and was born in this city. It has not changed for all my life. It remains the same dirty, nasty undeveloped, unprotected and it’s only getting worse and more dangerous. Our lives are not improving and a deep sadness covers every home and everyone in and around the city.
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Elections, General T&T, PNM, Politics

A Foolish Dog

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By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
January 21, 2020

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeLast Sunday Jeralean John, one of the most dynamic persons to enter the political arena in the last year, invited me to visit Savannah Park, Waller Field, or what is known as “Gaza.” I eagerly accepted the invitation, excited at the possibility of hearing what ordinary people—although people are never ordinary—had to say about the conditions under which they live.
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Elections, General T&T, PNM, Politics

NOT BECAUSE ONE IS PARANOID…

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By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
December 16, 2019

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeON THURSDAY I read Jovanne Edmund’s protest against Junia Regrello being reappointed as the mayor of San Fernando.

A day earlier I had seen a video in which Edmund had made a similar plea as she protested in front of San Fernando City Hall. Her gripe, according to Newsday, was that Regrello’s son worked for the San Fernando Corporation. Her rationale was as follows: ‘Nobody would kill you to say your son working in the corporation… Come out plain and say so. The same way your son could eat a food, other people could eat a food too’ (Newsday, December 12).
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Elections, General T&T, PNM, UNC

Money Does Not Always Buy You Love

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By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
December 10, 2019

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeIn May I met Esmond Forde, the parliamentary representative of Tunapuna, at the “dead house” of a respected villager. I told him that from what I heard and saw the PNM will lose the Tunapuna seat in the next general election. He disagreed and assured me that Indians in the constituency would support him so he was not worried. I wonder if he was surprised that UNC won the Tacarigua, Paradise, Caura seat in the local election.
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Elections, General T&T, PNM, UNC

Simple equations, complex solutions

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By Raffique Shah
December 10, 2019

Raffique ShahExactly one month before last Monday’s local government elections, I wrote in this space, inter alia: “…The PNM will face the December 2 elections at its most vulnerable point since winning the general election of 2015. Under its watch, thousands of workers have lost their jobs, most notably the 4,000 or so who were employed at the State-owned oil giant Petrotrin, but also other private sector employees who were retrenched amidst continuing economic stagnation. Serious crimes continue unabated, people are dissatisfied with the public health services and the availability of adequate potable water, many roads are in a woeful state, and so on…
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Agriculture, Elections, General T&T, UNC

The bitter taste of sugar

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By Raffique Shah
November 26, 2019

Raffique ShahI breathed a sigh of relief when I read my Express colleague Mark Wilson’s column last Friday headlined “Big Sugar, Kamla? Not so sweet.” I had just read the newspaper’s editorial which, in essence, supported a proposal made on the elections campaign by United National Congress leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar to resurrect the country’s sugar industry if her party returns to power, presumably following the 2020 general election.
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