IPS-English TRINIDAD: Voters Frown on ”New Politics” Date: Tue, 06 Nov 2007 15:49:04 -0800 Peter Ischyrion PORT OF SPAIN, Nov 6 (IPS) - It took just 12 hours on Monday for Patrick Manning to buck the trend that has befallen his colleagues in St. Lucia, the Bahamas and Jamaica over the last 12 months. After voters in this oil-rich twin island republic frowned on the need for ”new politics” and in the process decimated the recently formed Congress of the People (COP) party headed by former Central Bank governor Winston Dookeran, Manning paid homage to ”Almighty God (who) has spoken to the people of Trinidad and Tobago and we thank Him for this victory”. Early results show that Manning's People's National Movement (PNM) took 26 seats in the 41-member parliament, a margin he called a ”comfortable working majority”. The United National Congress won the remaining 15 seats. ”The people have spoken...I had said before we are prepared to work with whatever majority the people gave us,” Manning said. Manning has already signaled that his new administration would benefit significantly from the input of women in the cabinet. As many as 32 women representing the three political candidates were on the ballot Monday. While votes are still being counted, notable winners included Christine Kangaloo and Pennelope Beckles, who served in the last cabinet, as well as former opposition leader Kamla Persad Bissessar. Manning, 61, the country's longest serving legislator, went into the election well aware that incumbent governments in St. Lucia, the Bahamas and Jamaica had been recently trounced in successive general elections, and that he himself would have likely become the latest casualty had it not been for a divided opposition. A poll published by the New York-based North American Caribbean Teachers Association on the eve of the general election noted ”large-scale” flight from the COP to the other main opposition party, the United National Congress (UNCA), because of what the pollsters described as ”the arrogant refusal of the COP to enter into an electoral accommodation with the UNCA”. Peter Wickham, head of the Barbados-based Caribbean Development Research Services, a polling firm, told IPS that the PNM victory was thanks primarily to the split within the opposition. ”The people of this country have lost,” declared former Prime Minister Basdeo Panday, one of the two leaders of the UNCA, which had been making public overtures to the COP to rethink its ”new politics” and form an alliance to confront the ruling party. ”We might have lost the battle, but we have not lost the war,” he said in a speech to party faithful on Tuesday morning. Panday was a member of the National Alliance for Reconstruction, a coalition of opposition parties that in 1986 handed the PNM its first electoral defeat after 30 years of unbroken rule. But despite having his bubble decisively burst, the COP's Dookeran was soon telling supporters that the new party was here to stay despite its failure to win a single seat in parliament. ”We remain with our political integrity intact. I am obviously disappointed with the results we have, the country is not ready for change, but I hope change will one day become the reality for our people in Trinidad and Tobago,” he said. Veteran newspaper journalist Andy Johnson described the COP as a ”study in recycling”, even as critics refuse to ”consider the number and the quality of talent the party has attracted just beneath the personalities in the high spotlight”. Manning will break with tradition and hold the swearing-in ceremony at Woodford Square in the heart of the capital on Wednesday, signaling a desire to heal the rift that emerged during the four-week campaign, including the murder of one political activist and the hospitalisation of a COP candidate after he was severely beaten by unidentified persons. ”In the same way you supported us, I invite each and every one of you to the ceremony,” Manning said, praising the young voters whom he said turned out ”with a vengeance” and helped ensured the PNM's victory. He says that the new government will continue the policies of his last administration, basing its industrialisation and socioeconomic strategy on the windfall expected from the energy sector as the price of oil continues to skyrocket on the world market. The sector has provided tremendous financial resources to fuel the country's economic growth, which has averaged at 9.7 percent annually and helped lift the per capita income from 7,100 dollars to 14,790 dollars. New industrial projects are expected to draw some eight billion dollars in foreign investment, including a planned controversial smelter plant, a steel complex, and a gas-to-liquids plant. But as he prepares for a new five-year term, Manning will be fully aware that violent crime remains a humbug to the nation's development. Some 250 people have been murdered so far this year, and last month, the Express newspaper published a red banner headline declaring the month ”Red October” after 38 persons were murdered. While evidence suggests that the drug trade in the wider Caribbean is fuelling the crime wave here, the population still wants to see tangible results in the fight against criminal activities. Political analyst Derek Ramsamooj said the new government must move quickly to deal with criminal gangs, whose prominence was highlighted by a 100-million-dollar drug bust a few years ago. ”Matters of this nature must be expeditiously resolved and the criminals brought to justice if for no other reason but to demonstrate that the new government is serious about tackling the drug and money laundering-related crime,” he said. ***** + TRINIDAD: Divided Opposition Makes Last Pitch Before Polls (http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=39906) + POLITICS-TRINIDAD: The Women Are at the Gates (http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=39694) (END/IPS/CA/IP/PI/KS/07) = 11061823 ORP010 NNNN