Hot Like Pepper - Super Saturday closes election campaign - Politics

Politics : Super Saturday closes election campaign

2007/11/2 11:50:00

As the general election campaign for the Nov. 5 general election in Trinidad and Tobago draws to a close this weekend, each of the three parties is insisting that it will win, pointing to a variety of polls. And each hopes its big Saturday rally will help clinch the victory.

American civil rights activist and former U.S. Presidential nominee, Rev Jesse Jackson, will be a guest speaker at the UNC-A political rally Saturday.

The UNC-A rally promises to be the biggest. UNC-A Chairman has announced that a guest speaker will be Rev. Jesse Jackson, an internationally known civil rights activist, who ran for the presidential nomination in the United States.

In addition Bollywood superstar Salman Khan will be at the rally.

Bollywood supersatr Salman Khan will top a list of international stars at the UNC-A rally Saturday.
The polls being advertised show such a variance in the election predictions that the whole issue of election political is now being questioned.

Polling in the country has never been accurate. One organization - NACTA - has probably had the most success in calling the election, having accurately predicted at least three general elections.

According to NACTA the PNM is poised to win but with minority popular support. It says it is mainly because of the split votes in the marginal constituencies.

It says if the oppostion vote is consolidated there would be a clear majority for the opposition. But there is no sign that will happen.

The UNC-A has stepped up its campaign against the Congress of the People (COP) on the political platform and in media advertising.

It is calling on people to put country before party affiliation and consider the implications of a vote for COP.

The party is telling voters that the UNC-A will win the election and remove the governing People's National Movement (PNM) only if they it can get the "few hundred votes" the COP will win.

It says that means a vote for COP is a vote for the PNM.

The NACTA poll suggests that COP cannot win a single seat but can inflict enough damage to ensure that the PNM wins.

For its part, the COP is calling the UNC-A campaign an act of desperation and is insisting it will win the election.

The polls it is quoting in its advertising shows the UNC-A at the bottom, with just over 10 per cent popular support. That is inconsistent with the reality on the ground and one independent international observer has called it "absurd".

One thing that eveyone appears to agree on is the fact that the third party influence has changed the dynamics signficantly enough to reduce the PNM to a minority.

But the peculiar nature of the first past the post voting system means the PNM can win a clear majority of seats even if it gets minority popular support.