Indo and Afro-Trini voting patterns (Part 1)

It is intense and enduring among both major racial groups.

However, Raffique Shah (Express 16/5/17) maintains that, after the era of Dr Eric Williams, “Most Afro-Trinis have shed blind race loyalty” but that “Mostly, the Indo- vote remains a monolith….

manipulated… (as a ) worse form of tribalism.” Shah admits that he does not have “any empirical evidence to support this claim” but nevertheless proceeds to make this categorical statement. One can only speculate as to his motive regarding any grievance from his ULF days.

My own view is that, contrary to Shah’s questionable assertion, Afro- Trinis have on the whole not relinquished race loyalty nor has the Indo-Trini vote been monolithic in support of the Indo-Trini party and its leader. If anything, historically the Indo-Trini vote has been more dispersed and less concentrated behind a single party. Shah makes passing reference to the results of the 1981 and 1986 General Elections to buttress his statement. We do not have the benefit of exit polls to determine the extent to which voters of each major ethnic group refrained from supporting the ethnic representative party. However, we may proceeed to arrive at reasonable conclusions through a process of analysis of voting data and valid assumptions.

I may mention that I was involved with the DAC campaign of 1976 and assisted with the public relations programme of the Party. I was also the editor of its newspaper “THE TRUTH”. At the time, I also served as Education and Research Officer of the All Trinidad Sugar and General Workers Trade Union and was the first editor of its newspaper “BATTLEFRONT”. I played a part in attempting to forge an alliance between the DAC and the ULF for the General Elections of 1976 which came to nought. In addition, I was the ULF candidate for the Oropouche constituency in the 1981 General Elections and for the NAR in the 1986 General Elections.

I also participated in discussions in the formation of the NAR. I therefore make my observations from firsthand experience.

Recourse to a little history before the 1981 General Electios would serve to provide some background and perspective.

In the 1956 Election campaign, Dr Williams cogently invoked Afro- Trinidadian grievances, disadvantaged status and racial sentiment in mobilizing Afro-Trini support for the PNM which overwhelmingly constituted the party’s base.

However, the PNM could not have won marginal constituencies such as San Juan,Tunapuna, St.Joseph and San Fernando West without sizeable Indo-Trinidadian support which enabled it to win the majority of seats in the then Legislative Council. It has been claimed that many Presbyterians, Muslims and Arya Samajists voted for the Afro- Trini dominated PNM instead of the Indo-Trini dominated PDP led by Bhadase Maraj.

In the 1976 General Election, the Indo- Trini votes were distributed among five parties- ULF, DLP, SDLP, DAC and the PNM thus contradicting the assertion of Indo monolithic support for a single party. Most of the Indo- Trini votes went to the ULF according to the voting pattern observed. It secured a total of 84,780 votes. Given that the party only contested 26 seats and received a poor response in Afro- dominated PNM areas e.g. Diego Martin (413), P.O.S West (253), POS East (254) and Laventille (172), the bulk of its support would have come from the Indo-Trini dominated constituencies.

I have calculated that the Indo-Trinis would have accounted for approximately 74, 000 of the total. The DLP and SDLP votes totaled 15,332- almost all Indo-Trinis.

The DAC obtained a total of 25, 586 votes of which 7,682 were in Tobago.

Of the 17,904 DAC votes in Trinidad, the vast majority, possibly 14,000, would have been Indo-Tr i ni votes.

(To be continued)