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 Raffique Shah
October 26, 2013
Type the name “Kamla” on the Google search engine and see what comes up. That “Kamla”, a very common Hindu name, instantly yields Trinidad and Tobago’s Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar, suggests that she is the number one “Kamla” in the world—something we should all be proud of.
Continue reading Kamla croaks away
By Dr. Kwame Nantambu
October 23, 2013
The paucity of votes (62,000) Jack Warner’s Independent Liberal Party (ILP) mustered at the 21 October 2013 local government elections sent a very loud and clear signal/message to the extent that the electorate wanted more than just fanfare, entertainment, elaborate promises and jerseys (money was good too).
Indeed, Uncle Jack must now ask himself these serious, ex post election introspective questions: Where did all my putative green supporters go and did not do, according to plan, on election day?; Were the pre- election day numbers a mere illusion of popular support?; Did my putative green supporters just went with the green flow/ride with no previous intention of so voting?—“Is party time.”
Continue reading Why Jack Warner-ILP Lost
By Raffique Shah
October 13, 2013
Over the past 40 years, since the first oil boom began in 1973, allegations of corruption against government ministers, other politicians and senior public officials must have exceeded the one-thousand mark. I refer to alleged acts of corruption involving tens of millions of dollars and more, not to petty sums below, say, five million.
Since each corrupt transaction of this magnitude necessarily involves several persons—politicians, contractors, corporations, bankers, public officers—we could easily say that at least 5,000 persons of high standing in the society were involved.
Continue reading Corruption and deception
By Renuka Singh
September 29, 2013 – guardian.co.tt
Energy Minister Kevin Ramnarine has distanced himself from the negotiation process that allegedly led to an almost ten per cent drop in local voting rights over the cross-border Loran/Manatee bloc. This move comes on the heels of scathing criticism that the minister had mucked up decade-long bilateral talks between Venezuela and Trinidad that, if negotiated properly, could have boosted local energy reserves and made allowances for Venezuelan pipelines to pass through the local refinery.
Continue reading Bad Deal: Ramnarine blamed for messing up energy negotiations
By Andre Bagoo
September 12, 2013 – newsday.co.tt
OPPOSITION and Independent Senators were caught napping early yesterday morning when they missed their chance to formally oppose historic legislation introducing proportional representation to the system of local government.
During a marathon 17-hour sitting of the Senate, which began on Tuesday and ended at 3.15 am yesterday, the senators had vociferously objected to the Municipal Corporations (Amendment) Act 2013, the unprecedented legislation which introduces a system of proportional representation for the selection of aldermen.
Continue reading Opposition Fails to Vote
By Raffique Shah
September 08, 2013
Rather than re-shuffle her Cabinet for a third time in three years, Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar should have considered resigning and calling fresh general elections.
By an annual tinkering with her appointees and their portfolios, the PM has all but admitted she is incapable of leading the country, which, really, is nothing to be ashamed of. The great Eric Williams often complained this country was ungovernable. It still is.
Continue reading Governing the ungovernable
By Raffique Shah
August 10, 2013
I sense a wave of panic among leaders and frontline members of both the PNM and the UNC/COP Partnership. With Jack Warner on a roll following his by-election victory, and the UNC losing senior members like Lyndira Oudit to the newly formed ILP, a meeting of what can be best described as the ruling party’s general council pleaded with the Prime Minister to postpone local government elections for fear of another routing at the polls.
Continue reading Politicians panic
By Suzanne Mills
August 09, 2013 – newsday.co.tt
I’m beginning to believe that President Anthony Carmona thinks he is still a judge, that Trinidad and Tobago is his courtroom and that we are all before him on a charge.
“Madam,” he chided Opposition Whip, Marlene McDonald last Friday as he addressed the opening of Parliament, “I am speaking about conduct!”
Continue reading All hail king Carmona