I have examined the surprise announcement that the People’s National Movement (PNM) convention and internal election scheduled for November 17 had been cancelled and the further announcement swiftly, but ambiguously, walking back the cancellation decision. My view remains that any apparent suppression of democracy within the PNM is a matter …
Read More »Daly Bread: PNM’s impairment of internal democracy could leave T&T worse off
The People’s National Movement (the PNM) tersely announced last week: “The People’s National Movement wishes to advise that its 51st Annual Convention, as well as the internal election, originally scheduled for Sunday 17 November 2024, has been cancelled.” The PNM is currently the party in government having been elected for …
Read More »Daly Bread: The Gov’t rests on withered laurels, while public lacks feasible alternative
Resignation from political office is a rare event in our country and I had intended to comment on the significance of the resignation of Laurel Lezama-Lee Sing from the Government bench in the Senate. However, reference to her current courthouse business may bring trouble on this publication. Nevertheless, I can …
Read More »Daly Bread: Biden goes, yet Persad-Bissessar stays—a teachable moment
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 …
Read More »Dear Editor: EBC should show more respect to D’Abadie and Arima South
“[…] We never got an explanation from the EBC as to why they insisted on re-naming Arima South [as, now, Malabar/ Mausica] and feel comfortable with this outrageous decision. “[…] Why not apply the same principle in other districts like: Diego Martin Central, Northeast and West, Laventille East and West, …
Read More »Daly Bread: A basis for general election choices
At the end of last week’s column, I described the Opposition United National Congress (UNC) after the results of its recent internal election as “the Kamla Persad-Bissesar re-embedded UNC”. In the week since that column was written, factionalism has broken out in the UNC. The governing People’s National Movement (PNM), …
Read More »Orin: The potential cost of UNC’s civil war
“[…] Ever since she ran in 2015 on a leader-centric election marketing campaign that sold the virtues of Kamla The Leader rather than UNC The Party, she has tightened her grip on her party. “[…] The double-edged sword of making the leader rather than the party the focal point is …
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