Tag Archives: 2023 local government elections

“If a political party does not have its foundation in the determination to advance a cause that is right and that is moral, then it is not a political party; it is merely a conspiracy to seize power.” Dwight D Eisenhower, March 1956. I recalled this Eisenhower quote as I …

As was widely expected, the local government elections (LGE) resulted in a repeat of the control of the 14 local government bodies being split 7-7 between the PNM and UNC. Crumbs of votes were sprinkled on the minor parties. We have reconfirmed our propensity to condemn ourselves to continued political …

At the core of democracy is the vote. This single act is how we, the voters, signal how we feel to the politicians and their parties. It is a means of control. When we vote, we tell the nation which candidate we want and which policies or programmes are crucial. …

This week saw the eruption of meaningless narratives that do not help us to become the best we can be. How do we expect our citizens to dream of becoming better? We get seduced by rhetoric that induces hatred and possibly violence. When will we seek what is in our …

From time to time, politicians say things with which we can agree in principle.  However, we are regularly disappointed when there is little or no implementation, or only a few moves are made for flash and for the glorification of the politicians and their satellites. Last week I described the …

The last time local government elections were held on 2 December 2019, there were 139 electoral districts. On 14 August, there will be 141, to be contested by 373 candidates—barring any withdrawals. Only 34.7 per cent (374,878) of the electorate (1,079,976) cast their ballots on that occasion. It is not …

Disappointment and impatience cloak our land in the run-up to the Local Government elections. Oh, Gorm Man! When will we get serious about our life, children, and future? A Lloyd Best quote captures our dilemma, which is the appalling lack of imagination and gravitas to tackle our nation’s problems: “[…] …

There is a new example of political truth being stranger than fiction. It is that it takes two very wobbly Attorneys General to make a distrusted Opposition look good. When it was not trying to pretend that the outcome of the recent case in the Privy Council (the PC) was …

As football fans know, VAR stands for Video Assistant Referee. This is the additional refereeing team that uses technology located immediately adjacent to the field of play to assist the match referee to review, when necessary, certain match-changing decisions. These decisions include goals, penalties and direct red-card incidents. I thought …