Pop­u­lar psy­chic Win­ston Ra­goo is pre­dict­ing an up­set in a few of the non-mar­gin­al seats in to­mor­row's elec­tion which, he says, will no doubt work in Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar's favour. Con­stituen­cies the PNM will have to watch out for Ra­goo said are Ari­ma, To­co/San­gre Grande and D'Abadie/O'Meara. "These could swing. This elec­tion will have a lot of up­sets. It will be one of the great­est elec­tions ever in the coun­try. I am see­ing the UNC win­ning and Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar be­com­ing the coun­try's first fe­male prime min­is­ter," Ra­goo said. Ra­goo al­so pre­dict­ed that TOP will cap­ture one of the two seats in To­ba­go. With the Peo­ple's Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) and Peo­ple's Part­ner­ship (PP) con­test­ing in 41 con­stituen­cies, ten of which po­lit­i­cal sci­en­tists have de­clared mar­gin­al, Ra­goo said this elec­tion would not be judged on race, gen­der, class or re­li­gion but peo­ple's yearn­ing for change.

"I think it's not just Man­ning they want go. The peo­ple are fed up with the par­ty." Ra­goo, who shot in­to promi­nence last Oc­to­ber, was giv­ing his fore­cast on the gen­er­al elec­tions. Speak­ing at the Guardian's Port-of-Spain of­fice on Fri­day, Ra­goo said some of the PNM strong­hold con­stituen­cies will tip in favour of the PP by a few hun­dred votes. "These votes will make the dif­fer­ence," he said. Ra­goo said while many think the UNC vot­ers will come out in full force, the COP elec­torate will shock the coun­try.

Neck-and-neck in mar­gin­als

Mar­gin­als such as Tu­na­puna, St Joseph and San Juan/Barataria, Ra­goo said, will be a neck-and-neck race. Ra­goo how­ev­er stat­ed that the PP will not win by a land­slide. The sidelin­ing of in­cum­bent Ari­ma MP Pen­ne­lope Beck­les by Man­ning, Ra­goo said, did the par­ty more harm than good. He al­so said the fall-out be­tween Dr Kei­th Row­ley and Prime Min­is­ter Patrick Man­ning, which was nev­er mend­ed, left a sour taste in the mouths of many PN­Mites which the par­ty will pay for dear­ly. Ra­goo said the PNM will have to rein­vent it­self and re­turn.

–Re­port­ing by SHAL­IZA HAS­SANALI