EXPRESS EDITORIAL: A PNM anti-EBC campaign part two?

PNM queries about the non-appearance of writs required for holding the general election have proved to be ill-informed, and ill-advised, unless the intent has been to raise a political dust storm for the sake of doing so. The clearest result can be seen only in potential damage to the image of the Elections and Boundaries Commission (EBC), if not to destabilise that critical agency.

PNM vice-chairman Colm Imbert, seeking re-election in Diego Martin North/East, charged that Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar had neglected to notify the President to issue writs and arrange for nomination day.

Such platform thunder before a partisan Piggott’s Corner crowd in Belmont soon took shape as party policy. PNM chairman Franklin Khan joined the cause of assailing various official targets for failures in making due arrangements for the September 7 poll.

The PNM first sought to indict Ms Persad-Bissessar. In response, the Prime Minister released copies of correspondence with the President, geared to advancing preparations for holding elections.

As she deflected from herself all blame in the matter, the PNM shifted its aim to the President and the EBC, decrying the failure to issue the necessary writs. The party held up the non-appearance of writs as suggestive of a government aim to postpone the elections.

The approach soon came to look much like a fishing expedition for an election-related issue. The President’s Office and the EBC clarified that each had taken steps, in keeping with the law, for the holding of the September 7 poll.

Unable to contradict such official responses, the PNM appears still unsatisfied by the EBC’s explanation. The agency affirmed that, ahead of the issuance of writs, it has been recruiting and training 41 returning officers to ensure efficient conduct of the elections.

The Commission does not appear to have been disturbed by such attacks effectively targeting its competence and probity. It no doubt retains in institutional memory the 2000-2002 efforts by the PNM to charge the agency with rigging the elections, with “voter padding”, “voter fraud”, and other abuses, especially in marginal constituencies.

In opposition, the PNM targeted the EBC with judicial review. In early 2002 when, under Patrick Manning, the party took office, it set up the Lennox Deyalsingh enquiry into the EBC.

After the EBC survived all such challenges, what remained clear was a PNM intent to blame the commission for its 2000 and 2001 election performance. In 2015, the voting public should be alerted to the prospect that the PNM’s latest unfounded anxieties could be the start of similar things to come. 

The Editorial above was reproduced unedited from the TRINIDAD EXPRESS