Rad­hi­ca Sookraj

In­de­pen­dent can­di­dates, with the ex­cep­tion of Jack Warn­er, will face sure de­feat if they con­test any by-elec­tion or lo­cal gov­ern­ment elec­tions this year.So said po­lit­i­cal sci­en­tist Dr Bish­nu Ra­goonath in re­sponse to com­ments that sev­er­al can­di­dates, in­clud­ing Lin­coln May­ers, an­i­mal ac­tivist Nali­ni Di­al and San Fer­nan­do City Cor­po­ra­tion coun­cil­lor Daren Mc Leod, planned to fight lo­cal gov­ern­ment elec­tions as in­de­pen­dent can­di­dates.

In a tele­phone in­ter­view yes­ter­day, Ra­goonath said T&T's sys­tem of gov­er­nance made it dif­fi­cult for peo­ple to win elec­tions on an in­de­pen­dent tick­et.He said: "I think pol­i­tics is too much par­ty-based and as such it would make no sense to fight as in­de­pen­dents. He added that core con­stituen­cies would con­tin­ue to be di­vid­ed on the ba­sis of par­ties."Our sys­tem of gov­er­nance is based on par­ty pol­i­tics so peo­ple will con­tin­ue to sup­port their re­spec­tive par­ties and not in­di­vid­u­als," Ra­goonath said.

But, he said, be­cause of his hard work in rep­re­sent­ing his con­stituents, Warn­er could win his seat if he fought as an in­de­pen­dent.Ra­goonath said a cul­tur­al rev­o­lu­tion must be­gin if par­ty pol­i­tics were to change."Pol­i­tics is chang­ing but the change is very slow. Peo­ple may be­gin to think that their par­ty is not giv­ing them what they want and so they will vote in­de­pen­dent in­di­vid­u­als but I do not think this has hap­pened," he added.

Po­lit­i­cal sci­en­tist and as­sis­tant lec­tur­er at the Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies, Dr Maukesh Bas­deo, al­so said in­de­pen­dent can­di­dates had a low chance of win­ning an elec­tion."Be­fore the 1960s, there were in­de­pen­dent can­di­dates but af­ter in­de­pen­dence we moved away from in­de­pen­dent can­di­dates to­wards par­ty pol­i­tics," Bas­deo said.

How­ev­er, he added, strong can­di­dates, like Warn­er, had emerged."As an in­de­pen­dent can­di­date he stands a good chance of win­ning so what it re­al­ly comes down to is rep­re­sen­ta­tion and whether these can­di­dates can rep­re­sent peo­ple," Bas­deo said.He al­so said there was no sud­den shift from par­ty pol­i­tics.

Can­di­date speaks

McLeod, for­mer­ly a UNC coun­cil­lor, said he be­lieved in­de­pen­dents had a chance of win­ning be­cause peo­ple were frus­trat­ed with their par­ties.He added: "Pol­i­tics is chang­ing a lot over the past few years and now is the best time to do this be­cause the op­tions from the po­lit­i­cal par­ties are not good."Peo­ple are in­tel­li­gent and it may be a good idea to have the in­de­pen­dents on one plat­form. We want a com­mon prin­ci­ple which we can ex­pound to the rest of the coun­try.

He said cit­i­zens were ready for an in­de­pen­dent plat­form be­cause par­ties were not meet­ing the needs of cit­i­zens.