By: Staff Writer
July 27, 2021
A Caribbean political strategist said that governments that lingered on through the brunt of their COVID-19 wave fared the worst end of the political backlash on Election Day as opposed to governments that had elections early on in their pandemic wave.
Peter Wickham, director of the Caribbean Development Research Services (CADRES), a political research company told Caribbean Magazine Plus what is behind these landslide victories in favour of one party and he said, “the challenge regionally has always been that the number of seats is so small and you have a first past the post system where you have a slight swing the landslide is apparent.
“In the case of Grenada their election wasn’t too long ago and the government won back to back elections in a landslide.”
Despite what had taken place in Grenada and the Turks and Caicos Islands, other elections in the Caribbean have been “quite close” as with St Vincent and the Grenadines and also Trinidad and Tobago where the People’s National Movement (PNM), led by prime minister Dr Keith Rowley held on to the government in 2020 with a 22 seat to 19 seat victory over the United National Congress led by former prime minister Ms Kamala Persad-Bissessar despite the UNC gaining two seats in parliament.
Explaining that the problem with Ms Bissessar was that she was seen as “old news” and “not exciting enough” similarly with regard to Jamaica’s opposition People’s National Party (PNP) led by Dr Peter Philips that lost in a landslide in 2020 to the ruling Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), led by prime minister Andrew Holness.
Mr Wickham said: “When you look at the COVID elections Jamaican one stood out as a landslide and St Kitts and Nevis was also a landslide. But then again, the number of seats was so small.”
The COVID-19 pandemic has also been playing a significant role in how elections are shaping up in the Caribbean as Wickham suggests that elections that were held early in the COVID-19 countrywide wave, incumbents fared better but “as the pandemic wore on in country, governments tended to lose and lose badly.”
Mr Wickham said: “Natural disasters help governments in the short term but in the long term they are going to be devastated.” Speaking about former prime minister of Turks and Caicos Sharlene Cartwright-Robinson who lost all but one seat for her political party, “She went into an election after four years of being in power COVID-19 had set into the country.
“But if you look at the others, for example in Jamaica and Trinidad, St Vincent and St Kitts, they more or less took COVID-19 when it was fresh disaster and normally the theory is when you have a natural disaster, the government that is able to manage it well will win again if an election is called relatively soon. But, if you give a man food and water right after a hurricane he will be pleased with you but if you let the natural disaster linger on and that man is without a job for three months he will be very angry with you.”
The main trend happening in Caribbean elections right now has been about “leadership and who is a more exciting leader,” said Wickham. He added: “In Jamaica, the leadership of the PNP was tired and people were looking for something new and exciting and so they stuck with the government. People want new and exciting leadership. They want exciting politics period.”
“In Trinidad and Tobago it was a similar situation where the opposition they presented was the former prime minister and she had the same challenges. With St Kitts and Nevis, again with former Prime Minister Denzil Douglas, he was tried and tested and lost he ran again and lost again.”
The paradox being in St Vincent and the Grenadines where it wasn’t so much about a new leader leading the opposition, Wickham said, but it was about the opposition leader Dr Godwin Friday of the New Democratic Party (NDP), being less exciting than Dr Ralph Gonsalves, prime minister and leader of the United Labour Party (ULP).
People are still “voting with their pockets” however but it is not the main thing Caribbean people are going to the polls with Wickham explained because many of the political parties stand for the same ideals and offer the same solutions so “anyone who stands outside of the existing paradigm” appears to be fresh and exciting.