The race for Chaguanas West

The high-pitch campaign for the Chaguanas West seat began on April 25 as soon as Jack Warner, 70, announced, at a political rally at the Pierre Road Recreation Ground, Charlieville, that he was resigning the seat.

The UNC yesterday held its last major public rally at the same location, as the campaign entered its final stages. While campaigning activity will continue today by most parties, it will be on a smaller scale: on the ground, with walkabouts and motorcades throughout Chaguanas West, where over the last three months banners, flags and music trucks have been urging 27,045 eligible voters to make a statement in tomorrow’s bye-election.

On April 25, Warner told the crowd that he was resigning, “in keeping with the highest Parliament traditions”. The political campaign that has unfolded since, however, has been marred with low moments including the use of expletives and race-talk on Warner’s platform which led to him four times apologising last week.

Warner’s resignation came days after his resignation as Minister of National Security was accepted by Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar on April 22 in the wake of the publication of a report of Concacaf’s ethics committee penned by several jurists including former Barbados Chief Justice Sir David Simmons. Sir David, who was appointed by Cabinet to chair the 1990 Inquiry, accused Warner of fraud, deception and impropriety not only during his time in football years ago, but also right up to the time when he was a sitting Government minister in Cabinet.

Warner later said it was his second offer of resignation in relation to his Cabinet post, the first of which had been refused by Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar some weeks before. Though allegations dogged Warner, particularly in 2011 when he was accused of Fifa bribery, the Prime Minister had said she did not want to act on hearsay reports. In fact, she had promoted Warner from Works Minister to Minister of National Security. Though the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) painted Warner in a poor light in a 2012 ruling it did not make any specific findings against him. However, it was really the Sir David Simmons report which appeared to make action inevitable. On a UNC political platform later, the Prime Minister also suggestively pointed out that her decision to act came after a trip to the United States and a visit with US State Department officials, amid claims in international news agency reports over activities involving Warner’s family and US law enforcement agencies.

While the Prime Minister had some say in Warner’s resignation from Cabinet, Warner’s decision to resign as Chaguanas West MP, did not appear to have the sanction of the Government, some of whom were surprised by this move. Warner also resigned as UNC chairman a day after he quit his Cabinet portfolio. However, he stated he was still in the UNC as an ordinary party member.

The seemingly unilateral decision to resign the Parliament seat was immediately interpreted as an act of aggression by some, forcing as it did yet another election campaign in a year which had already seen an intense campaign for the Tobago House of Assembly elections in January and in which Local Government Elections have been due by the last quarter. Others were of the view that a bye-election was the only legitimate way for Warner to remain in Parliament in the face of the damning findings of the Sir David Simmons report.

Though Warner resigned his seat on April 26, Speaker of the House of Representatives Wade Mark did not immediately declare the seat vacant. The Speaker sought legal advice and deferred to the Government Whip’s power to call a sitting of the House of Representatives, a move which was criticised by lawyers as not matching the spirit of provisions of the Constitution which link the timing of a bye-election to the date of a vacancy declaration. In any event, the seat was declared vacant on May 10, two weeks after Warner resigned.

Warner stated that he wanted to contest the bye-election on a UNC ticket. But his actions after April 25 seemed to suggest otherwise. From very early on, he changed his shirt colour at public events to green, telling Newsday the colour was “en vogue”. Slivers of green also appeared in several of his early print advertisements. He also continued a series of public rallies calling upon voters to support him, even before the UNC screening committee had convened. The move was interpreted as being designed to shore-up his support ahead of screening and was regarded as a threatening sign that the gloves were off.

What is more, Warner engaged in double-speak on the platform: launching a scathing attack of the Cabinet while professing loyalty and admiration for the Prime Minister. He said the Prime Minister was in the hands of a cabal and aimed his guns at specific Cabinet members including his long-time adversary Dr Suruj Rambachan, Attorney General Anand Ramlogan and the Government Chief Whip Dr Roodal Moonilal (who has long been a close ally of Persad-Bissessar and was once identified by her as a possible successor).

Persad-Bissessar countered by saying she was in nobody’s pocket and that the only people who commanded her were citizens. On April 29, Persad-Bissessar said, “I don’t know if it is because I am a woman and people can think I am weak or something. So I was controlled by Mr Warner, I was his puppet. Now they say I am controlled by other persons. I want to make it very clear, the people who control me are those who belong to the electorate and citizenry of Trinidad and Tobago. No one else.”

Persad-Bissessar, at several political rallies in the period before a UNC candidate was announced, also made plain that no one individual was larger than the party and the party rules — including relating to the screening of candidates — had to be complied with. At several UNC Monday Night Forum rallies — dozens have been held since April 25 — Persad-Bissessar declined to refer to Warner by name, but pitched a message of party loyalty over individual loyalty, a key plank of the UNC campaign.

Persad-Bissessar dramatically announced the bye-election date on the morning of June 13 after a marathon sitting of Parliament. She said she had sought counsel from Muslim leaders, aware of the fact that the bye-election period triggered by Warner’s resignation, meant that a bye-election in the month of Ramadhan was more or less inevitable.

There was much speculation over who the UNC would pick and names in the ring included Khadijah Ameen, 32, the young and relatively baggage-free Tunapuna Piarco Regional Corporation councillor; Manohar Ramsaran; Harridath Maharaj, a pundit; and Manohar Singh. Warner also formally submitted his name for screening.

The UNC formally announced the candidate as Ameen on June 28. The choice was not regarded as a surprise, since many were quite convinced the UNC could not take Warner back with the allegations hanging over him and after his attack on UNC Cabinet members. The PNM, having long campaigned against Warner, also put up a candidate, Avinash Singh, even if its prospects in the race have not been seen as robust.

Warner’s next move, which he had arguably been laying ground-work for since resigning, was to launch his own party: the Independent Liberal Party. The move at once painted him as an Independent, while technically allowing him a vehicle which could be further exploited for political ends. For instance, Warner — the purported interim ILP leader — offered the ILP to the coalition People’s Partnership. Persad-Bissessar, leader of the largest coalition party, swiftly and decisively replied with a single word: “No.”

Soon after the candidates were formally announced, Persad-Bissessar began to hit back at Warner’s increasingly aggressive platform rhetoric directly, raising questions over his record on travelling, his status in relation to US authorities, the source of his financing, and what he did with millions of funds earmarked for infrastructure development in Chaguanas West and elsewhere. The Prime Minister even questioned whether Warner was a Lagahoo — the ghostly dragger of chains and coffins who roams streets at night — given his claim to being at office at late hours in the night while decent citizens were normally asleep.

Warner continued his attack on the Cabinet, alleging, among other things, that a minister improperly owned six houses, prompting Minister of the People and Social development Glenn Ramadharsingh to protest that these claims were not true in relation to him.

The PNM too, not wanting to miss out on the party, also held a rally, launching allegations against the Cabinet at large. The Government responded by taking steps to initiate action for defamation. Similar defamation action was also initiated against Warner over several claims he made on the platform. Warner even launched a weekly newspaper, which he had initially billed as being a publication for good news, but instead seemed to be aimed at throwing barbs.

SHOCKING RACE TALK

But for all the poise and organisation of Warner’s carefully orchestrated campaign from the moment of April 25, it was an apparently unscripted incident last week Tuesday which has turned out to be the most memorable incident of the race.

A guest of Warner’s, said to have been put up by him at the four-star Hyatt Regency hotel at Port-of-Spain, made a shocking speech at an ILP rally last week Tuesday night at New Settlement, Caroni.

Guyanese attorney Jailall Kissoon, a one-time Guyanese politician, suggested it was okay to steal from the “the white man” — as opposed to “coolies” and “the black man” — and likened Warner to the wise Hindu deity Hanuman, whom Kissoon described as “ugly”. He also used expletives such as “bull****” on his platform.

Kissoon asked if Warner ever stole “from Indians or the black man,” adding, “So if he make he money from the white man, nothing wrong with that — is compensation!”

He further stated, “They called him lagahoo, but he has done that to protect “Mother Sita” in the Government. He ugly like Hanuman, but he’s as wise as Hanuman, and they (UNC) are afraid of him.” The remarks were condemned as a descrecration by Maha Sabha leader Sat Maharaj and by the President of the Inter-Religious Organisation (IRO) Harrypersad Maharaj.

Hours after the incident, Warner released a first statement of apology on Wednesday. At a cottage meeting the day after he apologised a second time. A third apology was also placed on Warner’s Facebook page. On Friday, in his final mass rally ahead of the election tomorrow, Warner again apologised, his fourth apology over the incident. He also referred to the football allegations and the Sir David Simmons report which started it all.

Tucked into his near two-hour long final rally speech on Friday, was this brief reference to the Sir David Simmons allegations, “The allegations from Fifa are more than a decade old. The allegations spoken of in the Concacaf Report are nothing more than a rehashing of the old allegations of which they all have been aware.”

With millions having been spent on an intense campaign (involving rallies and their accoutrements; television, print and radio advertisements) all of the parties have predicted victory in tomorrow’s election. Also in the race are Dr Kirk Meighoo of the Democratic National Assembly (DNA), and Oliver Norman of the National Council for Transformation (NCT).

Whoever wins, they will sit in seat No. 37 in the Parliament chamber come August 2, once sittings resume.