By Rickey Singh, Contributor
THERE ARE sharply contrasting moods for two general elections in the Caribbean Community states of Trinidad and Tobago and St. Lucia that will take place next month within a week of each other. If political turbulence seems the order of the day for Trinidad and Tobago's December 10 general election, then St. Lucia appears to have settled for political humour for its election that comes a week earlier on December 3.
First, a look at Trinidad and Tobago: To follow warnings from opponents of Prime Minister Basdeo Panday of possible eruption of violence and their allegations of voter-padding, one may be inclined to believe that the independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (EBC) is involved in a plot to steal the election for the incumbent United National Congress (UNC), triggering bloody political violence.
Panday's own spin on the warnings and allegations by his opponents of the main opposition People's National Movement (PNM) and some of his former close colleagues now branded "rebels" and "traitors", is that they are preparing the groundwork for their "defeat at the poll" and "possible anarchy". Whatever shortcomings there may be in the work done by the EBC to compile the final electoral lists to be published on November 26 a week after Nomination Day it is simply difficult, alarming really, to learn that the PNM in particular is treating the EBC as a hostile enemy.
After all, except for one new member appointed by President A.N.R. Robinson last year, following the sudden death of Sir Isaac Hyatali, who headed the EBC for some 15 years, the Commission of five members has been conducting elections in Trinidad and Tobago for years, with victories and defeats for the PNM and UNC.
For last December's election, amid the allegations of 'massive voter padding' and 'evidence' the PNM's leader Patrick Manning submitted to the EBC and the police, it turned out that there were no more than 252 cases of voters for the EBC to invalidate, leading to investigation and some charges laid by the police. The UNC won the election with a plurality of some 31,457 valid votes to what the PNM secured.
Now we are hearing from former UNC Communications Minister Ralph Maraj - who is expected to lose his own seat - that "the country has lost faith in the EBC", while Manning himself has spoken about "thousands of missing voters" in some constituencies without, as the EBC said, producing evidence. By late last week there was much focus by the PNM on two voter registration cards in its possession that belong to individuals who are said to be dead, but distributed for voting on December 10.
The EBC's Chief Elections Officer, Howard Cayenne, said they knew the individual who was given the two cards for verification, are aware of the circumstances of how they came into the possession of the PNM, and that the matter is being thoroughly investigated. But he was dismissive of "any crisis", explaining that the verification process of the final voter register to be published shortly was already showing more than 90 per cent accuracy.
The political atmosphere is not at all encouraging, with opponents of the government openly warning of eruption of violence should the UNC return to power and with no serious attempt to discuss social and economic programmes to be pursued after December 10.
Across in St. Lucia, it is widely expected that the incumbent Labour Party of Prime Minister Kenny Anthony will convincingly return to power for a second term but not by the sweeping 16-1 victory it scored at the 1997 poll. In that CARICOM state, where much bitterness exists among the splintered opposition forces that were involved in a short-lived anti-government "National Alliance", there is nothing of the spectre of political turmoil as exists in Trinidad and Tobago. Old foes, and sometimes allies of convenience, like ex-Prime Minister John Compton and George Odlum, the former Foreign Minister of Anthony's Labour administration, as well as the former short-lived successor to Compton as leader of the main opposition United Workers Party and would-be head of a UWP government, Vaughan Lewis, are the best known names in the line-up to frustrate a second-term Labour Party victory.
Apart from Compton - and this depends on his choice of constituency - it will be surprising if there are more than four other victorious UWP candidates on December 3. What is being presented by Odlum as an "Alliance", even after the return by Compton to his UWP, now under the leadership (for the present?) of a retired headmistress, Morella Joseph, is hardly expected to win a single seat.
Part of the fun politics is to follow the barbs being traded by former allies Compton and Odlum over who is responsible for the collapse of the 'National Alliance', or receiving foreign funding for the election campaign. Previously attacked by Compton for his links with Libya, a long suspected source of funding of some political parties and groups in the Caribbean, Odlum is now on the offensive against what he claims to be funding of Compton's UWP by Taiwan.
He does not produce proof but claims knowledge of Taiwanese funding of the UWP's election campaign, something that is reported to also have occurred when the UWP was in power. Taiwan is consistent in its denials, as expected.
But much of the humour for the election, outside of entertainment to be provided by candidates who will not be able to convince voters why they should be in Parliament, will come from a new, overnight party called 'STAFF' which, in St. Lucian vernacular, means "drunk after the fete finish". Its leader, Christopher Hunte, ironically, happens to be the son of the Labour Party's campaign manager and current Foreign Minister, Julian Hunte, whom Anthony had succeeded as the SLP's leader a year before the May 1997 election when the UWP was humiliated with just one of the 17 parliamentary seats. Producer of a satirical programme, 'Lucians', on local television, the young Hunte is in the habit of having fun at the expense of politicians of all shades as well as St. Lucians in various walks of life.
Decrying "all politicians as the same" he said that should STAFF secure only 1,000 votes and its candidates lose their deposits (which seems a certainty), we would have made a statement about the current established parties.." Of course, across the region there are elements and groups to provide some entertainment at election time when they choose to run for public office. Trinidad and Tobago can do with a "Staff" party at this time to help them to do what they normally do well in easing tension laugh if off.
