Cadiz predicts revolution of the mind

“People are waking up to the fact that they have power, and are more aware of the abuse of power by those holding political power,” Cadiz said.

Cadiz’s enlightenment came after thousands of ballots in the group’s referendum were returned telling how the people voted, and from talking to people on the streets.

Some 948,000 ballots were posted to citizens around mid-June, using an Elections and Boundaries Commission (EBC) list, asking people to vote in TT’s first ever referendum on issues like crime, poverty and leadership.

“About 40,000 came back, many with notes in them,” Cadiz told Newsday yesterday. “People also voted on the Internet and they are fed up with the inability to control crime, with the poverty that still exists in this very wealthy island, and they are horrified at what is being accepted as leadership. This response is very telling for the country.”

Cadiz said the referendum is still to be completed though. “Yesterday (August 4) was supposed to be the cut-off date but we have extended it to August 11 because of the volume of mail still out there with TT Post.”

He said a fair percentage of the ballots failed to reach the people and were returned to them with no votes. He blamed this on a flawed EBC list.

He said members of the committee took to the streets of Tobago on Thursday and, at the end of the day, were not too sure that the people there were supporting the Government. Tobago’s two seats are controlled by the PNM.

“We talked to people in Scarborough, Roxborough and Crown Point and there was a feeling of widespread disappointment. They were very supportive of the referendum,” Cadiz said.

“We went because we got a fair amount of calls from Tobago after we sent out ballots there.”

Noting that they didn’t ask the people how they voted, he said they got a good idea how they felt about the issues, however, from talking to them.