The coun­try's two ma­jor po­lit­i­cal par­ties, the rul­ing PNM and op­po­si­tion UNC, have been en­gaged in screen­ing can­di­dates for the up­com­ing gen­er­al elec­tions.

The process has his­tor­i­cal­ly been fraught with in­ter­nal wran­gling in both par­ties, as their screen­ing com­mit­tees, led by their re­spec­tive po­lit­i­cal lead­ers, some­times come up with can­di­dates that par­ty mem­bers do not al­ways know or want.

Over the last month, it has be­come clear this year will be no dif­fer­ent, es­pe­cial­ly as the PNM and UNC have both sig­nalled their in­tent to go to the elec­torate with fresh faces.

We must ac­knowl­edge that both par­ties have their own con­sti­tu­tion and ways of do­ing busi­ness, but if we are to deep­en the de­mo­c­ra­t­ic process, nei­ther the PNM, UNC, nor any po­lit­i­cal par­ty can ar­gue that their can­di­date se­lec­tion process should be ex­empt from pub­lic scruti­ny.

In the Unit­ed States, in or­der to be­come your par­ty's choice to con­test a po­si­tion on any elect­ed body, you must be pre­pared to first face-off with oth­er can­di­dates will­ing to con­test the elec­tion on be­half of the par­ty. It is on­ly af­ter emerg­ing from the process can one rep­re­sent a par­ty.

In T&T, no such pri­ma­ry process ex­ists and in­stead, we have in the PNM a sit­u­a­tion where peo­ple are ex­pect­ed to be nom­i­nat­ed by the con­stituen­cy groups, con­stituen­cy ex­ec­u­tives and fi­nal­ly the par­ty's screen­ing com­mit­tee.

The UNC is dif­fer­ent, with in­di­vid­u­als al­lowed to sign nom­i­na­tion pa­pers - thus their can­di­da­cies can­not be said to re­al­ly come from the peo­ple but rather from the par­ty as a whole.

By its very na­ture, the process adopt­ed by the UNC puts the pow­er of de­ter­min­ing can­di­dates in the hands of a few and not par­ty mem­bers.

While the PNM's process seems to add some greater depth to the de­mo­c­ra­t­ic process, the re­cent re­jec­tion of vice-chair­man Robert Le Hunte's can­di­da­cy and the seem­ing will­ing­ness to ac­com­mo­date Am­bas­sador Pen­ny Beck­les-Robin­son in Ari­ma reeks of a sys­tem in which the con­stituents on­ly have a say if the lead­er­ship al­lows.

If Mr Le Hunte is not good enough to be a can­di­date af­ter be­ing the nom­i­nat­ed more than once by the par­ty groups, then they and the con­stituents de­serve to know what he has done that in­val­i­dates his can­di­da­cy.

It is not good enough to say this is the in­ter­nal par­ty process be­cause it is the first step to de­ter­min­ing who the Mem­ber of Par­lia­ment might be fol­low­ing gen­er­al elec­tions.

It was the late Lloyd Best who warned that democ­ra­cy is not just about show­ing up on elec­tion day but about mo­bil­is­ing and putting for­ward your de­mands for a bet­ter so­ci­ety.

The glob­al Black Lives Mat­ter protests are not just about the sys­temic racism in the USA and oth­er parts of the world but about the need for a deep­er democ­ra­cy which tru­ly ob­serves the will of the peo­ple.

In T&T, we too must deep­en the de­mo­c­ra­t­ic sys­tem, start­ing with our po­lit­i­cal par­ties.