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Joseph Biden, president of the United States, and our former Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar, who became our country’s constitutionally appointed leader of the Opposition in 2015, have something in common. They have been assessed as electoral liabilities.
Biden’s liability was more precisely revealed by the regular opinion polls published in the United States (the US). Assessments of Persad-Bissessar’s uncertain prospects stand on her track record to which further reference will be made.
Comparison between the huge US nation and our tiny island nation must be made with care. Although we both practice democracy in which we have the periodic opportunity to vote for the head of the executive of the country, the respective constitutional structures and political practices are significantly different.
Despite the differences, the contrast of Biden going and Persad-Bissessar staying has a glaring lesson for us.
The track record of Bissessar is that the party she leads, the United National Congress (UNC), lost the general elections of 2015 and 2020 under her leadership. But she remained or was allowed to remain political leader of the UNC and to transition from prime minister to leader of the Opposition.
Photo: UNC
She did receive the limited comfort of having her slate of candidates victorious in internal elections in June this year but the party-member voters were not representative of a cross-section of the voting population.
Notwithstanding the absence of regular opinion polls, many believe that Bissessar is not capable of being successful as the prime ministerial candidate of the UNC and that it is time for Bissessar to roll up her political tassa out of the electoral arena and take some of her fellow drummers with her before the next general election.
The latest permissible date for the upcoming election is November 2025, taking into account the period permitted for holding the general election within three months after the dissolution of Parliament.
Photo: OPM
As is well known, Biden became an electoral liability as the presidential candidate for his Democratic Party on account of perceived infirmities of age. The Democratic Party went into near panic when Biden lost his train of thought in the course of “a calamitous performance” during a presidential debate on 27 June against the Republican Party’s Donald Trump.
Less than one month later, Biden dropped out of the presidential election race to be held on November 5 this year. Biden also endorsed vice-president Kamala Harris to replace him as his party’s candidate for president.
Sections of the US electorate breathed a sigh of relief and the Democratic Party rallied behind Harris joyfully and gained a boost in the polls.
Biden, however, did not rush out the door. He maintained that he had the ability to fight the Republican Party’s Trump and was going to do so, but pressure was applied.
Pressure came from members of Biden’s own party because members of the two US legislative bodies are not under the thumb of the head of the political executive, unlike our members of Parliament who are exposed to sanctions from their respective political leaders.
Nevertheless, certain validating elites and political party donors, concealment of whose campaign financing is not permitted, robustly joined in causing Biden to bow out.
What therefore is the glaring lesson for us? Our citizens are facing heavy socio-economic pressure, constantly terrified by violent crime. I am also beginning to worry that our country may go broke.
It is imperative therefore for the electorate to have some tolerable choices in the next general election.
Because members of Parliament fear the wrath of the political leader, those of the validating elites, not in the murky business of unregulated campaign financing, must find “the belly” to pressure the UNC to refresh its tired act, as well as to pressure the governing People’s National Movement (PNM) to relieve us of the jokers in their pack.
Photo: OPM
The Government currently has no fear of electoral defeat—the fear that drives governments to snap out of gross neglect, dismissiveness and arrogance.
In our bizarre situation, the politicians have no stimulus to re-examine themselves. It is our responsibility to let both major parties know that the electorate dislikes choices that make voters feel that they have to hold their noses to vote.
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Martin G Daly SC is a prominent attorney-at-law. He is a former Independent Senator and past president of the Law Association of Trinidad and Tobago.
He is chairman of the Pat Bishop Foundation and a steelpan music enthusiast.
