Bav­ina Sookdeo

Time and time again, you have heard politi­cians beg­ging you to vote. Whether it is via ad­ver­tis­ing on the news­pa­pers, ra­dio, tele­vi­sion, bill­boards or com­ing to your door, they do what they have to in or­der to get that vote. Why? - Sim­ply be­cause every vote counts. Ac­cord­ing to Mary Cory­at, PNM Can­di­date for Mamoral/Chick­land for the up­com­ing Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment Elec­tions, one should vote "be­cause the free elec­toral process is a priv­i­lege that one should ho­n­our, by vot­ing." It is your right to vote. We live in the Democ­ra­cy of Trinidad and To­ba­go and as soon as you turn 18 and you are a cit­i­zen of this coun­try you have a right to vote. It is like your right to prac­tice your re­li­gion or to free­dom. Paul Bharat, PNM Can­di­date for Cap-de-ville/Fan­ny Vil­lage, agreed with Cory­at's state­ment and added, "It is the de­mo­c­ra­t­ic right of every cit­i­zen to vote. I dare­say all elec­tions are im­por­tant and each vote is crit­i­cal."

I will ad­vise any­one to vote be­cause it's their one true op­por­tu­ni­ty to�choose who their voice is and be­cause this can then de­ter­mine the way for­ward in their com­mu­ni­ty. In my opin­ion it is im­per­a­tive that cit­i­zens by­pass eth­nic is­sues and pro­hib­it mar­ket­ing strate­gies from de­ter­min­ing their choice of can­di­date. As such be­ing aware that the cit­i­zen­ry is ex­pe­ri­enc­ing Elec­tion fa­tigue I will ad­vise to choose care­ful­ly be­cause I have ac­tu­al­ly been privy to an elec­tion be­ing de­ter­mined by one vote." Adding to Bharat's com­ment was the PNM's Ab­don Ma­son, Can­di­date for Pt. Fortin. He in­sist­ed, "One of the most pow­er­ful tools any­one in Trinidad has been blessed with is the op­por­tu­ni­ty to vote. If you do not voice your con­cern we will not hear what you have to say." It is a fact that your vote di­rect­ly af­fects you and if you refuse to vote you have no moral right to com­plain about the de­ci­sions made by the gov­ern­ment.

By vot­ing you ac­tive­ly in­volve your­self in our na­tion's de­vel­op­ment. Vot­ing gives us, the peo­ple, a say. You have the pow­er to ac­tive­ly de­ter­mine your fu­ture and maybe that of your chil­dren. Hen­ry Awong, Coun­cil­lor of the Pi­paro/San Pe­dro/Tabaquite con­stituen­cy for sev­en years in­sist­ed that vot­ing for the Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment Elec­tions is in­deed im­por­tant for every­one over the age of 18 be­cause "You will be vot­ing for the per­son who will be rep­re­sent­ing you at the Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment lev­el and it is im­por­tant to vote for some­one who can and will rep­re­sent you well at the Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion." Youths may al­so think it is not im­por­tant for them to vote but they must re­mem­ber that any elec­tion held in this coun­try will af­fect them and their fu­ture. Youths, on this oc­ca­sion, you have the pow­er so use it!

Hy­acinth Ram­per­sads­ingh, UNC Can­di­date for Quinam/Morne Di­a­blo ad­vised: "On May 24th 2010, the winds of change swept through this coun­try shak­ing the old, ar­cha­ic sys­tems to their foun­da­tions. This wind of change brought with it a new leader, a new vi­sion and re­newed hope for a coun­try that was locked in de­spair and de­pres­sion by a Gov­ern­ment that did not care about the peo­ple of this coun­try.

"But we can­not stop here. Our job is not yet done. We can­not yet sit back and be­come com­pla­cent. We must keep the en­er­gy and en­thu­si­asm alive and com­plete the process by be­ing vic­to­ri­ous at the Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment elec­tions. You must vote." If you are still not con­vinced to vote, just imag­ine liv­ing in a coun­try where you have no right to vote and where the gov­ern­ment is cho­sen by one group of lead­ers. How un­fair is that? How would you feel liv­ing in a coun­try like that?

The good news is that you do not re­side in such a coun­try so use your right and vote! If you want things to stay the same or you want things to change you must vote. Don't go think­ing that your sin­gle vote will not help, as men­tioned be­fore, every vote counts. If you do not vote, it sim­ply says that you do not care about the af­fairs of the coun­try!