NACTA finds it also

THE FINDINGS of NACTA's recent exit poll and post election survey that former Prime Minister and now Opposition Leader Basdeo Panday has become the United National Congress' biggest liability and a stumbling block to a regrouping of the Party, should neither be ignored nor lightly dismissed by the UNC. After all, the track record of NACTA has been quite impressive. The organisation has been undeniably correct in its election poll results since 1995. Its accuracy continued with respect to the General Elections of 2000, 2001, 2002 and also the Local Government Elections of 1999 and last month. The results of these polls, in fact, testify to the integrity and independence of NACTA and completely refute charges that it is biased towards the PNM. What the post election survey reveals about Mr Panday then must provide additional and inescapable incentive for the UNC to deal decisively with its leadership problem.

NACTA's polls had predicted a 17-17 tie between the UNC and the then ruling People's National Movement in 1995, with a third party, the National Alliance for Reconstruction, securing two seats; an outright win for the UNC in the 2000 General Election, an 18-18 tie between the two political principals in 2001 and the eventual eclipse of the NAR. NACTA, based in the United States has been, undoubtedly, the most on target pollster group in the history of Trinidad and Tobago elections. In light of growing calls for his resignation, it would be politic for Mr Panday to be guided by these poll results and step down, as he has, himself, more than once offered in the past to make way for a new leader. If, as the poll suggests, a United National Congress with Mr Panday as Political Leader will see its influence wane, then the issue of leadership should no longer be considered as one for him and him alone to decide, but for the party's elected legislators, as well as its rank and file. While, admittedly, Mr Panday has achieved a lot by his regrouping of old United Labour Front links to form the United National Congress, it should now be clear even to his most ardent supporter that he has come to the end of his long and stormy political career, that he has nothing more to offer his party or the country. After long years as Opposition Leader, he led the UNC to the seat of government, becoming the nation's first Prime Minister to come from the Indian Diaspora. He has earned his place in TT's political history, but the drastic decline of the party, its electoral defeats, its ineffectiveness as an opposition force and now the dismal results of NACTA's poll should provide overwhelming impetus for a change.

An effete Opposition, whether United National Congress or what have you, particularly if this weakness is forecast to get worse if certain conditions persist, does little for the democratic process. No country, subscribing to the form of Westminster style government as we do, can ignore the lessons of history and the well known maxim about the corrupting influence of power. That is why an alert, virile and respected opposition is vital to our politics and the proper conduct of the people's affairs and that is why the UNC, in its current distress, is a liability to the country's administration and progress. Also, under the Westminster system of Government, which this country has inherited, the Opposition and its leader are considered as an alternative government and an alternative Prime Minister. The results of the NACTA poll which, in our view, correctly reflects a majority opinion, show that the present UNC under its present leadership has little or no chance of ever attaining that alternative status.