Dear Editor,
The House of Representatives in Trinidad passed a constitutional amendment bill that would empower voters to recall their Member of Parliament if they are dissatisfied with the MP’s performance. The bill also requires that an MP gets more than 50% support in order to be elected. If no candidate in a district gets a majority, there will be a run-off between the top two contenders. This is a novel concept, unprecedented for the Commonwealth, that forces MPs to deliver to their constituents or be removed, and that a candidate gets majorityapproval. No more would the voters be considered as electoral slaves seeing their MPs only during election campaigns. Guyana needs a similar type of system that would empower voters, forcing the parties to service their constituents rather than pander to the interests of non-supporters – perhaps a combination of a constituency system (Trinidad) and PR (as in Guyana). Allowing voters a choice would work in Guyana so as to penalize MPs or their parties for ignoring them.
In Trinidad in the past, because of racial voting, the leader could put any “crapaud” in a district and he or she would win the seat. The late Eric Williams used that exact comment. And the MPs were so afraid of the leader, that an MP followed his dictates even when he knew it was wrong and was against the interest of his constituents. Now, the leader’s power has been weakened because the leader knows the MP could lose his seat and so would give the MP some leverage in attending to constituency needs.
In the past, MPs in Trinidad have largely failed to service their constituents; there was no punitive measure to force them to deliver the goods. The MPs were certain the voters would vote for them again, even when they had not done anything for the district, because the alternative would be another ethnic party and they would still be ignored as is the norm in such a racialized polity. Constituents were largely ignored and their districts left undeveloped.
Now, the voters would have some power over the MPs – perform or we will recall you. There is no guarantee that MPs would not be punished even if they serve their constituents. Outstanding MPs like the former Attorney General Ramesh Maharaj and the Agriculture Minister Trevor Sudama had the highest approval ratings for serving their constituents, but they were voted out of office because they did not toe a line. They voted against their party to force an investigation into allegations of corruption; they were voted out of office because they voted on principle against corruption.
On the other hand, Indians rewarded Jack Warner, an African, for his performance in their district by rejecting the candidate put up by the Indian based UNC. Warner was consistently rated as the best MP in all opinion polls including NACTA. However, he voted against the amendment bill, because he is opposed to the provision that an MP must secure over 50% of the vote to be elected or face a run-off. The entire opposition feels MPs should continue be elected by a plurality as opposed to a majority.
The Trinidad electoral amendment is not perfect and does not address all the problems constituents face. But the amendment bill is an attempt to address the imbalance in power between voters and their MPs.
And Guyana desperately needs some kind of amendment in which the voter or constituent can have the upper hand over the party or the representative, forcing him or her to pay heed to the concerns of a district.
It is noted that all three parties in Guyana are against empowering voters. Not one MP in Guyana wishes to increase the powers of voters by requiring that the President be elected by a majority – either directly by voters in a run-off or by the parliament.
All three parties are against an election in which the president and parliament are chosen in separate ballots so as to give the voter a choice of executive and parliamentary representative. The three parties are contented to keep voters in electoral bondage; they are caught up with the trappings of office unconcerned about the day-to-day life of a voter. They know if the voters are empowered and/or given a choice, all three would be rejected for failing the population. Let the people be the boss to fire the failing politicians.
Yours faithfully,
Vishnu Bisram