PROF HAMID GHANY

hamid.ghany@sta.uwi.edu

As the coun­try pre­pares for the third con­test­ed pres­i­den­tial elec­tion in the Elec­toral Col­lege in more than 46 years of the ex­is­tence of the pres­i­den­cy, it is use­ful to ex­am­ine the cir­cum­stances un­der which there have been con­test­ed elec­tions.

The first con­test­ed pres­i­den­tial elec­tion was held on Feb­ru­ary 14, 1997. The two can­di­dates were ANR Robin­son and Jus­tice An­tho­ny Lucky.

Robin­son was nom­i­nat­ed by Ramesh Lawrence Ma­haraj, Dhan­raj Singh, Manohar Ram­saran, Adesh Nanan, Chan­dresh Shar­ma, Fuad Khan, Gan­ga Singh, Pamela Nichol­son, Trevor Su­dama, Har­ry Par­tap, Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar and John Humphrey.

Lucky was nom­i­nat­ed by Patrick Man­ning, Ken­neth Val­ley, Eu­lalie James, Ed­ward Hart, Jar­rette Nar­ine, Mar­tin Joseph, Er­ic Williams, Camille Robin­son-Reg­is, Ru­pert Grif­fith, Baren­dra Sinanan, Roger Boynes, and Hed­widge Bereaux.

At the Elec­toral Col­lege sit­ting that day, the Speak­er, Hec­tor Mc Clean, in­vit­ed a pro­pos­er from among the pro­posers of each can­di­date to ad­dress the Elec­toral Col­lege.

Speak­ing for the PNM, Mr Ken­neth Val­ley, had this to say in­ter alia:

“Mr Chair­man, the Con­sti­tu­tion pro­vides for a Pres­i­dent who is the Head of State, Com­man­der-in-Chief of the armed forces, and who is re­spon­si­ble for the ap­point­ment of mem­bers to the in­de­pen­dent bench of the Sen­ate, and var­i­ous in­de­pen­dent com­mis­sions. These pow­ers of ap­point­ment re­quire the Pres­i­dent to ex­er­cise this au­thor­i­ty con­sci­en­tious­ly, im­par­tial­ly, and free from any po­lit­i­cal in­flu­ence. Mr Chair­man it is the view of the mem­bers on this side, that the per­son hold­ing the of­fice of Pres­i­dent must be an ex­em­plar, man­i­fest­ing un­ques­tion­able in­tegri­ty, strength of char­ac­ter, in­tel­li­gence, pa­tri­o­tism, ob­jec­tiv­i­ty and non-par­ti­san­ship….” (Elec­toral Col­lege, Feb­ru­ary 14, 1997).

Speak­ing for the UNC/NAR coali­tion gov­ern­ment, Mr John Humphrey had this to say in­ter alia:

“Mr Chair­man, the ho­n­ourable ANR Robin­son, SC, was du­ly nom­i­nat­ed on Feb­ru­ary 3, 1997, to oc­cu­py the high and dis­tin­guished of­fice of the Pres­i­dent. Mr Robin­son, a se­nior Cab­i­net Min­is­ter and a for­mer Prime Min­is­ter of the Re­pub­lic of Trinidad and To­ba­go, is one of the most ex­pe­ri­enced par­lia­men­tar­i­ans in the Com­mon­wealth and the Caribbean re­gion…” (Elec­toral Col­lege, Feb­ru­ary 14, 1997).

With those open­ing state­ments made by a pro­pos­er from among the list of pro­posers for both can­di­dates, the chair­man hand­ed over the con­duct of the se­cret bal­lot to the Clerk of the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives who over­saw those pro­ceed­ings.

Af­ter all mem­bers of the Elec­toral Col­lege had vot­ed, the chair­man in­vit­ed two peo­ple from among the mem­bers to sit with the Clerk of the House for the count of the bal­lots. Camille Robin­son-Reg­is and Ramesh Lawrence Ma­haraj as­sumed those po­si­tions.

The re­sult of the vote was 46 for ANR Robin­son and 18 for Jus­tice Lucky. There was one re­ject­ed bal­lot.

That meant that the vot­ing did not fol­low strict par­ty lines as the PNM had 17  MPs and six sen­a­tors which ought to have trans­lat­ed in­to 23 votes for Lucky at min­i­mum. We learnt last week that Dr Kei­th Row­ley was one of those who vot­ed against his par­ty’s nom­i­na­tion.

In 2003, the two can­di­dates were Prof George Maxwell Richards nom­i­nat­ed by the PNM and Ganace Ram­di­al nom­i­nat­ed by the UNC. The fi­nal re­sult of the vote was 43 for Richards and 25 for Ram­di­al. Bear­ing in mind that the UNC had 16 MPs and six Sen­a­tors on their side, the least num­ber of votes that Ram­di­al could have ex­pect­ed was 22. The fact that he got 25 votes sug­gests that maybe three in­de­pen­dent sen­a­tors or some oth­ers may have vot­ed for him.

Pro­fes­sor Richards had pre­vi­ous­ly been nom­i­nat­ed on April 5, 2002, as the first nom­i­nee of the PNM to be Speak­er of the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives. That nom­i­na­tion did not suc­ceed and the House laboured for two days in a failed at­tempt to elect a speak­er.

Ganace Ram­di­al served as Pres­i­dent of the Sen­ate dur­ing the pe­ri­od 1995-2002. He act­ed as Pres­i­dent of the Re­pub­lic on nu­mer­ous oc­ca­sions dur­ing that pe­ri­od when Pres­i­dent Robin­son had to trav­el or when he was un­avail­able for ser­vice ow­ing to ill­ness.

With Chris­tine Kan­ga­loo, the Gov­ern­ment’s nom­i­nee, fac­ing Is­rael Khan, the Op­po­si­tion’s nom­i­nee, there will be a se­cret bal­lot once again. How will the num­bers emerge see­ing that there have been vary­ing counts in the last two se­cret bal­lots?

It is al­so not­ed that the par­ty cau­cus di­rec­tives have not been re­li­gious­ly fol­lowed in pre­vi­ous se­cret bal­lot elec­tions. Will that trend con­tin­ue or not?

Prof Hamid Ghany is Pro­fes­sor of Con­sti­tu­tion­al Af­fairs and Par­lia­men­tary Stud­ies of The Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies (UWI). He was al­so ap­point­ed an Hon­orary Pro­fes­sor of The UWI up­on his re­tire­ment in Oc­to­ber 2021. He con­tin­ues his re­search and pub­li­ca­tions and al­so does some teach­ing at The UWI.