Trinidad and Tobago’s November 5th election pivoted on the impact of third parties in a first past the post system and in a political culture marked by ethnic-based voting. There are different takes on what the real story of the election was. On the one hand, the ruling People’s National Movement (PNM) and the opposition United National Congress (UNC) were pitched in a familiar battle. The Indian-identified UNC only become ascendant in 1995 because of a coalition with the National Alliance for Reconstruction (NAR), from which it splintered less than ten years before. Except for the seven years, between 1995 and 2002 when the UNC held power, the party has spent most of its life in the Opposition benches. In contrast, the African-identified PNM has controlled government since 1956. These continuities gave the election a whiff of “same-old” and presented options that have kept at least one third of the electorate from voting in recent times.
However, almost a year ago, the UNC was split in two by members who chose to create a new party under the leadership of ex-Governor of the Central Bank and UNC MP Winston Dookeran. The infant Congress of the People (COP) championed “new politics” and embodied a scathing critique of the charismatic Indo-Trinidadian Basdeo Panday and his maximum leader style of headmanship, Trinidad’s tradition of ethnic voting and the blind eye political parties often turn to corruption and financial mismanagement.
What some called the “hemorrhaging” of the party was the basis for much gossip and speculation in the election. The COP ran, almost until the end, a much longed-for issue-based campaign that provided clear vision and action directions to its primarily middle-strata, mixed ethnic following, and it rallied respectable turnouts at campaign meetings. In the heady two weeks prior to the election, however, it fell more than once to the mud-slinging of bitter competition and to moon-and-stars promises such as free laptops for all secondary school children. Some supporters wryly observed that not all these school children necessarily have access to electricity, pipe-borne water or quality roads even in the glittering metropolis that Trinidad is increasingly becoming.
Yet, the COP stuck close to its defining mandate and avoided some of the Carnivalesque bacchanal typifying PNM and UNC platforms, where everyone from Trinidadian rock star Nigel Rohas to Jamaica’s Sizzla and Beenieman appeared alongside Brazilian dancers, and chutney, soca and gospel music entertainers. FIFA boss and UNC Deputy Political Leader Jack Warner and Mr. Panday even made a 24 hour return trip to South Africa, but failed to get Nelson Mandela to endorse the UNC. You could describe the COP as a nice-looking mas band, but not the one with the most flags, the loudest trucks, the most popular music, the best fete or the most drunken revelers.
Like the other parties, the COP also front-lined its female candidates. In this election, women constituted over 50% of voters, and all the parties championed the contribution and leadership potential of women. The COP even had its own “Woman is Boss” campaign with more than a dozen women candidates shown smiling over a revised national anthem line that “every gender” as well as “every creed and race has an equal place”. On the NGO side, the Network of NGOs for the Advancement of Women continued their work, begun in the 1995 election, of putting out a Women’s Manifesto, organizing a lunch for all the women’s candidates to meet, calling for women to be placed in constituencies they can win and advocating that winners be given parliamentary posts with real power. The Prime Minister appeared to see no irony in personally trashing the Draft National Gender Policy before it could reach Parliament while championing women’s equality on the platform.
Young women and men candidates and speakers were also given special attention by all parties. It’s hard to measure the impact of youth voters. On the one hand, about a thousand young women and men participated in a nation-wide consultation that led to a Youth Manifesto – ironically provided for the public before those of the political parties. Many in the COP camp represented secondary school and university educated youth interested in generational contestation and attracted to the opportunity to depart from a tradition of ‘race’ politics. The party certainly made it clear that it was encouraging younger members to take on leadership roles at all levels.
However, voters watched the youth market be targeted and absorbed by all the parties. The PNM also appointed many younger persons as candidates and, oscillating between optimism and cynicism, we all wondered if that was part of true succession planning or because young people beholden to party leaders are easier to control. Two trends are clearly present. While younger generations are definitely seeking more discussion on issues and accountability in governance, nothing yet suggests they are about to decisively break the monopoly of two-party, ethnic competition.