KEVON FELMINE

Se­nior Re­porter

kevon.felmine@guardian.co.tt

While the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) calls for in­de­pen­dent in­ter­na­tion­al elec­tion ob­servers for next month’s Gen­er­al Elec­tions, the Na­tion­al Trans­for­ma­tion Al­liance (NTA) and HOPE be­lieve Cari­com’s pres­ence will suf­fice.

Cari­com has ac­cept­ed T&T’s re­quest for an ob­serv­er mis­sion in Jan­u­ary.

How­ev­er, Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar, in a let­ter to Prime Min­is­ter Stu­art Young, has raised con­cerns about po­ten­tial con­flicts of in­ter­est. She cit­ed the in­volve­ment of Cari­com’s As­sis­tant Sec­re­tary-Gen­er­al Eliz­a­beth Solomon, who is mar­ried to for­mer at­tor­ney gen­er­al Regi­nald Ar­mour.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar al­so ex­pressed long-stand­ing con­cerns about the Elec­tions and Bound­aries Com­mis­sion (EBC).

NTA leader Gary Grif­fith sup­ports ex­ter­nal ob­servers to en­sure free and fair elec­tions but be­lieves Cari­com’s mis­sion is ad­e­quate.

“If we can­not trust our Cari­com neigh­bours, then we should not be in Cari­com,” Grif­fith told Guardian Me­dia yes­ter­day.

Grif­fith clar­i­fied that he nev­er in­sist­ed on in­ter­na­tion­al ob­servers. He ques­tioned an­oth­er po­lit­i­cal leader’s stance, ask­ing how they could col­lab­o­rate with Cari­com if they be­came prime min­is­ter while si­mul­ta­ne­ous­ly dis­trust­ing its elec­tion ob­servers.

“One of these po­lit­i­cal lead­ers even called Cari­com’s re­cent de­ci­sion on gun vi­o­lence a PR gim­mick. But I am very com­fort­able with Cari­com ob­servers in Trinidad and To­ba­go. We have al­ways had ex­ter­nal sup­port to en­sure a free and trans­par­ent process, and I ful­ly sup­port that.”

Grif­fith dis­missed the idea that in­ter­na­tion­al ob­servers were nec­es­sary over Cari­com’s, stat­ing that nit­pick­ing over ob­servers was a waste of time. He ar­gued, how­ev­er, that their pres­ence would de­ter base­less al­le­ga­tions from los­ing par­ties that could di­vide so­ci­ety and hin­der na­tion­al pro­duc­tiv­i­ty.

Mean­while, Hope chair­man Steve Al­varez said his par­ty had not yet dis­cussed the is­sue but planned to meet to­mor­row. But he af­firmed HOPE’s con­fi­dence in the Elec­tions and Bound­aries Com­mis­sion (EBC) and Cari­com ob­servers.

Con­verse­ly, the Con­gress of the Peo­ple (COP), aligned with the UNC, in­sists on ex­tra-re­gion­al ob­servers. COP leader Prakash Ra­mad­har de­scribed the up­com­ing elec­tion as the most crit­i­cal in the na­tion’s his­to­ry, ar­gu­ing that its out­come must be be­yond re­proach.

“It is cru­cial to have in­de­pen­dent in­ter­na­tion­al ob­servers, as we have had in the past, to en­sure elec­tions are con­duct­ed ac­cord­ing to law and or­der. If any er­rors or mis­con­duct oc­cur, they will be re­port­ed,” Ra­mad­har said.

He ref­er­enced Guyana’s elec­tions, not­ing, “Thank God there were in­ter­na­tion­al ob­servers.”

Al­so con­tact­ed yes­ter­day, po­lit­i­cal sci­en­tist Dr Maukesh Bas­deo said in­ter­na­tion­al ob­servers of­ten serve as a cer­ti­fi­ca­tion of the elec­tion’s le­git­i­ma­cy.

“Cari­com’s ob­servers are wel­comed, but hav­ing ad­di­tion­al teams from out­side Cari­com strength­ens the elec­toral process and re­as­sures the in­ter­na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty that our elec­tions up­hold de­mo­c­ra­t­ic prin­ci­ples. It en­hances cred­i­bil­i­ty,” Bas­deo ex­plained.

He re­called that Per­sad-Bisses­sar had pre­vi­ous­ly called for in­de­pen­dent ob­servers dur­ing for­mer prime min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley’s tenure. Row­ley agreed but re­strict­ed in­vi­ta­tions to Cari­com.

With the elec­tion date now con­firmed, Bas­deo said the ques­tion of ex­tend­ing in­vi­ta­tions to oth­er in­ter­na­tion­al bod­ies aris­es. He high­light­ed that the Or­gan­i­sa­tion of Amer­i­can States (OAS), the Com­mon­wealth Sec­re­tari­at, and the Carter Cen­ter have all de­ployed ob­serv­er teams to coun­tries, in­clud­ing Venezuela and Guyana.

Po­lit­i­cal sci­en­tist Dr Bish­nu Ra­goonath sug­gest­ed that the UNC’s de­mand for in­ter­na­tion­al ob­servers was un­like­ly to sig­nif­i­cant­ly im­pact pub­lic per­cep­tion or its cam­paign.

“The pub­lic sees this as a long-stand­ing UNC po­si­tion. They have been call­ing for in­ter­na­tion­al ob­servers for years,” Ra­goonath said.

He added that the UNC’s re­cent state­ments might in­vite greater scruti­ny. When asked whether Cari­com’s ob­servers would be suf­fi­cient, he re­spond­ed, “It would be more than what we had in 2020.”