Af­ter a com­plete re­jec­tion at the re­cent THA elec­tions the Peo­ple's Part­ner­ship gov­ern­ment has con­firmed spec­u­la­tions of their loss of favour with the elec­torate. A re­sult of 12 seats to the PNM and none to the TOP part­ner in the part­ner­ship is a sig­nif­i­cant and strong sig­nal to the PP. We must not for­get that this is the same elec­torate that gave the PP two seats in the par­lia­ment just un­der three years ago.

While Jack Warn­er states that the THA elec­tion was won by one par­tic­u­lar eth­nic vote it would be worth­while to note that To­ba­go is not as in­signif­i­cant as some may think. The pop­u­la­tion will in­ter­pret this re­sound­ing vic­to­ry to sig­nal the PNM re­gain­ing ground un­der the new lead­er­ship of Dr Kei­th Row­ley.

The lo­cal gov­ern­ment elec­tion is there­fore crit­i­cal for a num­ber of rea­sons. One such rea­son is the crit­i­cism by the PP of the PNM's fail­ure to call lo­cal elec­tions in over sev­en years. There­fore the pub­lic is watch­ing to see if the Prime Min­is­ter will keep her word and call lo­cal elec­tions when it is con­sti­tu­tion­al­ly due.

A vic­to­ry for the PP would as­sist in demon­strat­ing cred­i­bil­i­ty and re-es­tab­lish­ing its mo­men­tum go­ing in­to the gen­er­al elec­tion. Al­though the COP has men­tioned that they are con­sid­er­ing con­test­ing lo­cal gov­ern­ment elec­tions sep­a­rate­ly but as long as they re­main a part­ner, the part­ner­ship will con­tin­ue to be a ma­jor po­lit­i­cal force.

The stakes are ex­treme­ly high though as with any na­tion­al elec­tion be­cause a win for the PNM would al­so mean two vic­to­ries in a row which would be the resur­gence the par­ty was hop­ing for dur­ing their time in op­po­si­tion. This will set the PNM on a strong foot­ing for the gen­er­al elec­tions due in 2015.

The elec­torate con­tin­ues to look on as the fi­nal judge in de­ter­min­ing who will gov­ern. Note that many hold the view that all pol­i­tics is con­sid­ered lo­cal. Al­so the favour of the youth vote is be­com­ing more and more sig­nif­i­cant and will prove to be a ma­jor de­cid­ing fac­tor in who emerges vic­to­ri­ous come elec­tion day.

Ronald Hug­gins,

St Joseph