Now analysts have beaten the election results with a stick, but none of them predicted this win and such a landslide so their credibility is up for questioning. I myself thought that about 25 seats would be won including Toco/Sangre Grande which i always had my eye on.
All that aside these are some of my initial observations:
1- Trinidad is witnessing the introduction of ideological politics for the first time, to the extent that the PNM has positioned itself on the social right and the PP on the center left on social policy, including abortion and the death penalty amongst other policies. Great advancement, this is demonstrating mature politics.
2- Politics in Trinidad is also having a class shift instead of a racial one, the "middle class" is throwing its support behind the COP while the "upper class" is evenly spread across the spectrum while the most impoverished and "lower class" citizens are behind the UNC and PNM. (now i do not like these class names but i am using them to ensure i am clear)
3-Young people voted in large numbers or got involved heavily in this election. This campaign was fought on cyberspace and the PNM was trounced by the PP's supporters badly. Facebook and Twitter, postings in newspapers etc. saw the PP's supporters outnumber the PNM and the mauling was heavy.
4- Polls are useless in Trinidad as the sampling methods employed do not make sense in our country. Now firstly pollsters sample males and females equally that is wrong as females outnumber men on voting day, next the area a poll is done is crucial, now we know that pollsters will choose a public location that is popular such as Curepe junction, Chaguanas Market or High Street San Fernando, that is wrong wrong wrong! Polls should be done at random over the phone from all over a constituency and according to gender voting patterns, RACE is NOT a criteria.
5-The media in Trinidad has matured and was quite fair and balanced in its coverage of this election, kudos to the media, guardians of democracy!!!!!
6- Foreign based nationals (legal status) should be allowed to vote.
Now this is not my full analysis, but it will do for now.
in my next blog i will look at the issue or non-issue of race and offer some policy ideas.
