More than six decades ago, Dr Eric Williams wrote a political pamphlet which envisaged a transformation in T&T's electoral system. The self explanatory title–The Case for Party Politics in Trinidad and Tobago–envisaged the type of development in the democratic system that would take the country from British colony to full-fledged nation.
It was not that party politics did not exist in T&T at the time. Indeed, there had been several of them but none represented the country across the very rigid race, religious, class and colour lines that existed at the time.
Dr Williams, who later founded the People's National Movement (PNM) and became this country's first prime minister when T&T achieved Independence in 1962, expressed in that pamphlet a democratic ideal that drew many people to the political movement that was taking shape at that time.
Fast forward to today, several decades later, the day after local government elections and instead of attaining the democratic ideal that Dr Williams identified all those years ago, T&T seems to be moving backward.
The modern electorate that should have evolved by this time is far from evident. Instead, the tone of the just concluded campaign, fought primarily by the ruling PNM and the main opposition party, the United National Congress (UNC), suggests that T&T's democracy has been moving backward rather than forward.
While political parties have been trying to present more racially and socially diverse slates, there is no avoiding the reality that T&T politics continues to operate mainly along the ethnic lines that have existed since self-government began in the 1950s. Although at their idelogical cores the PNM and UNC are not that much difference in their ideas and policies–marked differences in their ethnic composition and allegations of racial bias still persist.
The Rotigate controversy that dominated the recent campaign, getting more traction than proposed reforms to the local government system promised by the ruling party, stands as shameful evidence of the immaturity that continues to characterise party politics in this country. No wonder that so many registered voters, based on their comments via social media, withheld their votes yesterday, indicating that their preferred party was NOTA (none of the above). These views should be taken seriously, not only by the two major parties, but the smaller entities who were vying for seats in regional bodies in Monday's polls. The number of citizens who are openly denouncing party politics as it currently exists in T&T, including many who think it is no longer necessary or desirable, have been making their presence felt by their non participation.
In so many ways, the electoral landscape looks a lot like a political system described by Italian scholar Gaetano Mosca as "an organised minority imposes its will on a disorganised majority."
Over the last six decades, while the country seemed to be approaching the democratic ideals embraced by so many citizens in the 1950s and 1960s, the political maturity that should be evident by now is nowhere in sight. Indeed, technological advancements have resulted in platforms across which information is regularly shared that exposes significant flaws in this country's democracy.
The consistently low voter turn out, particularly for local government elections, should be cause for serious concern by T&T's various political leaders.
Today, instead of claiming victory, there should be a deeper analysis of the voting patterns exposed by yesterday's polls. Increasing non-participation as indicated by the small number of votes counted last night–a tiny percentage of the eligible votes in this nation of 1.3 million–means that the country is moving further away from the ideals envisioned by those who laid the foundations of our democracy all those years ago.