In response to a letter published in the T&T Guardian, Wednesday, written by Dr Errol Benjamin and headlined COP election raises some interesting questions, I wish to proffer some interesting answers.
Answer to question No 1
The election of political leader of the COP was not a meaningless exercise. It was a full exercise in the democracy of the party, notwithstanding the view of some that the COP is a spent force. From the birth of the COP in 2006 I have been hearing either that the COP is dead, or it is a corpse, or it is irrelevant. That is eight years ago. I am certain that I shall be hearing the same tune next year and the year after and years after from the mouths of our detractors and critics. Nonetheless we press on.
Answer to Question No 2
I repeat my answer to question No 1 and, without being unmannerly by answering a question with a question, I ask Dr Benjamin very candidly to tell the national community which of the political parties that exists in T&T today can win an election on its own.
Answer to Question No 3
My information is that the number of voters on the allegedly unknown supplemental list was 88. Even if they all voted for the eventual winner (and that is hardly likely) and these votes were subtracted from the winner the main contender would still have lost by a wide margin. I have little information that the incumbent was or is an uncompromising supporter of the PM and the UNC. I know that he is a critical and vital supporter and in a coalition that is how it ought to be. But are they not supposed to support one another? (That is how coalition governments operate all over the world) Or would you be happier, Dr Benjamin, that they are quarrelling with each other every Monday morning and creating instability in the Government?
Answer to question No 4
In view of the absence from the party of the founder and other high-ranking members over the last couple years it was not curious that the challenger would eventually lose. My own view is that those with their selfish agendas for the party, which agendas overreached their political competence, misled and misadvised the founder and other high-ranking members. Those who stayed close to the party over the last years knew very well that the preferred choice of the founder was doomed to lose.
Answer to question No 5
The challenger was legitimately rejected. Many are the reasons I have heard for her rejection and it was not because of her alleged proven independence and desire to see the COP with an identity and voice of its own within the Partnership.
The winning candidate was the preferred choice of the majority of voters in the elections.
Answer to Question No 6
It is not a pyrrhic victory for those who voted for the incumbent. It is a victory for a gentleman who has demonstrated during his term of office that he is committed to the original ideals of the COP and that he wants the coalition to work and succeed, and the majority of voters of the Party in this election agreed overwhelmingly.
I hope that I have answered all your questions, Dr Benjamin.
Joseph Toney
COP Member
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