By all that is normal, the UNC should win the next election (due by August this year) in a cakewalk. Regrettably, for the country, Kamla Persad Bissessar's recent decimation of her front line has given the ruling PNM some hope for "salvation". They will try and argue that with a new leader there is hope. The problem here is that the "new" leader is inextricably linked to the old one and the old one's policies. There is no evidence whatsoever that Mr. Young will do anything except to carry on as before.
To counteract the damage that she has inflicted on the UNC, Mrs. Persad Bissessar has started laying out some of her policy decisions and proposals, e.g., she is proposing the abolition of the very unpopular property tax. What she hasn't said as yet is how she intends to pay for the proposals that she wants to implement After looking at her proposals, I think that she is on the right track, But (and it is a big "but") there is a serious question of how these proposals will affect the country's economic position and how we are going to pay for it?
That the PNM has screwed up mightily is beyond question. But it seems unfair to the electorate that the choice we are being faced with is on the one hand a bunch of donkeys who can't get us out of trouble (which they caused in the first place) and on the other side a populist who is only too happy to make promises that can't be fulfilled.
On balance, perhaps it might be better for the country to vote the UNC into office After all, the PNM has messed up so badly that they really don't deserve another chance. But don't expect that things will automatically get better. Haiti has shown us that when a country starts to sink, there is no bottom.
