Trinidad's voters reassess loyalties

The UNC promises to abolish poverty by 2010

By the BBC's Central America and Caribbean Correspondent Nick Miles

Voters in Trinidad and Tobago are going to the polls on Monday in the second general election within a year.

Last year, the United National Congress (UNC) won a second term in office but the Prime Minister, Basdeo Panday, called new elections two months ago.

The entrenched mindset of politicians and voters alike seems to be gradually changing

Mr Panday had held a two-seat majority with 19 of the 36 parliamentary seats but in September three of his ministers left his government, complaining of corruption within the party.

At the final rally of the opposition People's National Movement (PNM) on Saturday, speakers made much of the allegations of impropriety that have plagued Mr Panday's time in office.

"Say no to corruption," the party leader and former Prime Minister Patrick Manley told his loyal supporters." Save Trinidad and Tobago from the UNC."

The crowd, a sea of red party tee-shirts, shouted back.

Allegations

It is difficult to substantiate the corruption claims against the government.

During the campaign, newspaper reports appeared almost daily which suggested that the government had been awarding public works contracts - such as the new international airport that cost $400m - in exchange for backhanders.

The allegations have been consistently denied by the UNC.

The opposition leader is a former prime minister

At their final rally in a park in the Trinidadian capital Port of Spain, party officials again dismissed the claims.

"There is absolutely no proof of corruption," party chairman Wade Mark told me.

"It is total hypocrisy for the PNM to say these things when they themselves squandered public funds throughout the 70s and 80s."

Ethnic divide

There is little love lost between the two main parties.

For four decades since independence in 1962, they have been fighting for the loyalties of the less than 1.5m islanders.

What has made that fight particularly acrimonious is the overriding ethnic polarisation of the two parties.

The UNC is made up of, and supported by, the 40% of citizens of Indian background - descendents of sugar plantation workers who came to the island two centuries ago to work as contracted colonial labour.

The PNM, meanwhile, is predominantly Afro-Trinidadian.

Widespread intermarriage over the last 20 years has led to a fifth of the population now being made up of mixed-race Trinidadians

Historically the two ethnic groups were separated geographically, the Indians living and working primarily in rural areas, Afro-Trinidadians in the cities.

But that is beginning to change.

Driving through downtown Port of Spain you come across garish Hindu shrines sitting next to mosques with perhaps a Rastafarian centre just down the road.

Widespread intermarriage over the last 20 years has led to a fifth of the population now being made up of mixed-race Trinidadians.

Culturally this is reflected in the fusion of Indian and Afro-Caribbean cuisine and hybrid forms of music like "chutney", which has a Calypso beat mixed with traditional Indian singing.

Despite the social melding of the two populations when it comes to politics, the divide is still strong.

It is something that the two main parties have been trying to address.

'Race traitor'

Both have fielded a number of candidates from across the ethnic divide.

It is as much political pragmatism as a genuine desire to break down the divisions of the past.

The prime minister is an ethnic Indian

Both parties have realised that with an equal number of Indians and Afro-Trinidadians in the country, if they are ever to be able to form a government with a strong majority they will have to reach out and attract voters from the other racial camp.

The UNC's communications director, Rodney Charles, was one of the first Afro-Trinidadians to switch camp.

"I came to realise that the only way Trinidad can move forward is with a party that includes all ethnic groups," he tells me as we drive through the sugar cane fields on the way to an election rally.

"Sure I got abuse from my friends. They said "you're a traitor to your race" but we are a small island. If we are to make a strong society with a strong economy we have to act together."

Both parties have been pursuing this goal. They can now count on between 10 to 15% of voters who have broken ranks with tradition.

The entrenched mindset of politicians and voters alike seems to be gradually changing.