Trinidad and Tobago is in the midst of choosing a President who is elected differently from how Guyana’s President is chosen.  In Guyana, the President is chosen directly by voters and with his election the parliament is also chosen.  The presidential candidate’s party receives a proportion of parliamentary seats based on percentage of votes the candidate receives as head of his party’s list of candidates. In Trinidad, the President and the parliament are elected separately. The parliament is chosen by voters based on a first-past-the-post system.  The President is then elected by the parliament (both houses whose members combined make up the electoral college). In both countries, the President serves for five-year terms. There is no official term limit in Trinidad, but the precedence is a President serves a maximum of two terms and all preceding Presidents did – including Robinson- whose term was extended for an additional year after serving a full term. In Trinidad, unlike in Guyana, the President has no executive powers.  He only assents to bills and serves as a head of state. The T&T President is a ceremonial head of state similar to the Governor General before Guyana became a republic through fraudulent means. Executive power is invested in the Prime Minister in T&T just as it was in Guyana before the illegal 1980 constitution. Judge Anthony Carmona was nominated by the ruling People’s Partnership(PP) coalition for the presidency.
In a NACTA opinion poll I conducted over the last couple of weeks in Trinidad, voters overwhelmingly expressed disapproval with the way the President is chosen and called for a change in the process. And Carmona was not a top contender for the post.
In T&T, a candidate must be appointed by at least 12 MPs of the House.  The opposition PNM has 12 MPs, but one has been on medical leave for over a year and has not indicated an intention to sign a nomination for his party.  So only one candidate was put forward (by the ruling coalition) and that person, therefore, is the president-elect.  The opposition does not support the nomination of Mr. Carmona and had called for a consensus candidate. The government met with the opposition but they could not reach agreement on a consensus nominee.
Regarding Mr. Carmona, he was among the least accepted of the proposed names for the presidency in an opinion poll I conducted for NACTA last
week and his selection was a surprise pick among the population. The top choice was Former Chief Justice Satnarine Sharma.  He enjoyed
support among all ethnic and religious groups with the Speaker of the Assembly Wade Mark as the second choice. But privately, members of the ruling PP coalition told me they did not want an Indian (particularly a Hindu because of the ethnic-stocking charge they suffered last month), or a member of their own party because of complaints from the other coalition members. Sharma is a Hindu and Mark is a founding member of the United National Congress.  So it was probably on this basis that the coalition rejected the most popular candidates and went for a non-Indian. Carmona is of Spanish descent.
The poll also revealed that the overwhelming majority of people disapprove of the partisan manner in which the President is selected
and called for a change to the process. They feel that instead of the electoral college selecting the President in which the nominee of the majority party or coalition becomes the President, the people should directly elect the President.
Voters complain that the current process is not very democratic as it involves only a small group of politicians deciding who will be the ceremonial head of state.  They note that the ruling party has an
In-built majority, making the process a foregone conclusion and as such a sham.  They express disappointment that the People’s Partnership
government has failed to introduce constitutional reforms to grant powers to the population such as electing the President; the power to recall MPs; term limits, etc., that they had promised in their manifesto.
Asked if they think there is a need to change the way the President is chosen, only 8% said no. Asked if they prefer that the voters elect(rather than the electoral college selects) the President, 79% assented with 9% saying no. Asked whom they would prefer as President among several prospective
Choices, former CJ Satnarine Sharma (52%) was the popular choice followed by media tycoon and Integrity Commission Chair Ken Gordon,a distant second (16%); a close third by Speaker Wade Mark (15%). Others in the running scored less than one percent.
Asked if they would feel comfortable if certain individuals were chosen as President, Satnarine Sharma got the nod with 73%; Wade Mark 59%;
Queen’s Counsel Hudson Phillips 58%; Basdeo Panday 55%; former PSC chair Ken Lalla 53%; Judge Amrika Tiwary 51%; Foreign Minister Winston
Dookeran 44%; media magnate Ken Gordon 38% and Speaker of the Senate Hamil Smith, 27%.  The PP government should have consulted the views of the population before making a selection..