The the­atrics of Nom­i­na­tion Day in T&T, with pro­ces­sions of flag-wav­ing sup­port­ers, DJs, and tas­sa drum­mers ac­com­pa­ny­ing can­di­dates to file their nom­i­na­tion pa­pers, have giv­en way to the more in­tense phase of the 2025 Gen­er­al Elec­tion cam­paign.

The pa­ra­me­ters of the race to April 28 are now set and the bat­tle to win sup­port is be­ing waged, with few paus­es in be­tween, on cam­paign, main­stream and so­cial me­dia plat­forms.

As par­ties, in­clud­ing those in­volved in a "Coali­tion of In­ter­est," com­pete to cap­ture hearts and minds over the next three weeks at meet­ings, ral­lies, walk­a­bouts and mo­tor­cades, it is es­sen­tial to re­mem­ber that these healthy dis­plays of democ­ra­cy were not pos­si­ble just a few decades back.

Uni­ver­sal adult suf­frage, grant­ed by the British Par­lia­ment 79 years ago, was a hard-won right achieved on­ly af­ter long pe­ri­ods of ac­tivism and lob­by­ing pre­cip­i­tat­ed by the World Wars and labour up­heavals.

Up to 1946, the on­ly peo­ple al­lowed to vote in T&T were men 21 years and old­er and women 30 years and old­er, who had to meet cer­tain prop­er­ty and in­come cri­te­ria. They com­prised on­ly about six per cent of the adult pop­u­la­tion and were most­ly up­per-class men, since very few women met the prop­er­ty and in­come re­quire­ments to vote.

The first elec­tion held af­ter the grant­i­ng of uni­ver­sal adult suf­frage, with the fran­chise ex­tend­ed to men and women 21 years and over, took place on Ju­ly 1, 1946, for the Leg­isla­tive Coun­cil. Years lat­er, in 1976, there was a fur­ther ex­ten­sion of the fran­chise to per­sons 18 years and old­er.

Over that time, elec­tions were held with­out any ma­jor dis­rup­tions.

It is a cen­tral fea­ture of T&T pol­i­tics that cam­paigns are con­duct­ed in a car­ni­val-like at­mos­phere with crowds, mu­sic and much rev­el­ry. How­ev­er, all that en­er­getic elec­tion­eer­ing does not au­to­mat­i­cal­ly trans­late in­to a high vot­er turnout on elec­tion day.

The trend in re­cent elec­tion cy­cles has been de­clin­ing vot­er par­tic­i­pa­tion, as in­di­cat­ed by the turnout in 2020 when just 58.04 per cent of el­i­gi­ble vot­ers cast their bal­lots.

What­ev­er the cause – vot­er ap­a­thy or dis­sat­is­fac­tion – this low par­tic­i­pa­tion by the elec­torate is a symp­tom of a deep­er is­sue that needs to be ad­dressed.

It is wor­ry­ing that so many peo­ple opt out of a process that, hith­er­to, has been deemed free, fair, open and trans­par­ent, cul­mi­nat­ing in a peace­ful tran­si­tion of pow­er when­ev­er there is a change of gov­ern­ment.

It is not for lack of choice. In ad­di­tion to the two main con­tenders, the Peo­ple's Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM), found­ed by Dr Er­ic Williams in 1956, and the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC), es­tab­lished in 1988 by Bas­deo Pan­day, there are oth­er qual­i­fied par­ties and can­di­dates in the mix.

Apart from the par­ties that have aligned with the UNC in its "Coali­tion of In­ter­ests," oth­er en­ti­ties es­tab­lished in re­cent years have joined the race to oc­cu­py the Red House.

They in­clude the Pa­tri­ot­ic Front led by Mick­ela Pan­day, daugh­ter of UNC founder Bas­deo Pan­day; Gary Grif­fith’s Na­tion­al Trans­for­ma­tion Al­liance; the To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly-fo­cused To­ba­go Peo­ple’s Par­ty; as well as oth­er small­er par­ties that have emerged in the five years since T&T last went to the polls.

Al­so, while T&T’s laws do not yet al­low for ref­er­en­da, April 28 is an op­por­tu­ni­ty to send a strong mes­sage on is­sues af­fect­ing the qual­i­ty of life in this coun­try.

There is val­ue in every vote. The op­por­tu­ni­ty to cast a bal­lot should nev­er be squan­dered.