Commendable THA election

THE EDITOR: It is a moment of redemption in our local politics that the THA election could have turned out to be what it is: a 6-6 tie. The pattern has been, it seems, that with the incumbent in charge of the election machinery the now expected manipulation of the numbers would have taken place – a precedent seemingly well set the world over – but it didn’t.

Maybe because the numbers were small and fraud could have been easily detected, or maybe Tobagonians, seemingly bent on change, would have none of it. Or maybe it was just simply that – a free and fair election which is singularly commendable in the THA.

For just recently we could recall the turbulence of the general election with queries in Tunapuna, St Joseph, D’Abadie/O’Meara and the anomaly in Toco with a seeming loss for the incumbent changing into a huge win in the end, all of which could have decided the election one way or another, but in this case the ruling party emerged winner.

Nor can one forget our next-door neighbour, Guyana, where, were it not for the insistence of then Caricom head Mia Mottley, its election machinery would have fraudulently converted its election in favour of the incumbent David Granger.

Or Nicolás Maduro, also next door, who for many is a well established manipulator of elections in his favour, now demonstrating all the symptoms of a dictator assured of an election win, and with Russia having his back, daring to annex Essequibo as that matter is still under arbitration at the International Court of Justice.

And how does the “greatest democracy in the world” fit into all this? Does it live up to that designation with millions of Americans questioning the recent Joe Biden/Kamala Harris win in the election and does it raise eyebrows about a possible conspiracy with the total judicial system inclusive of the Supreme Court, local legislatures and courts virtually refusing to entertain the hundreds of sworn affidavits pointing to possible fraud?

Is this aggravated by a mainstream media clearly biased in their reporting against Donald Trump, going so far as to deny him as the president of the US the basics of communication to the people, and further so by the betrayal of some RINOs (Republicans in name only) who never forgave the outsider Trump for trumping them at the primaries?

And how does one respond to a current president who is clearly tainted by the Hunter Biden Ukranian allegations and his connections with China, signing executive orders like the one on immigration ushering illegal hordes from the South to the detriment of the American worker and the cancellation of the pipeline to Canada snuffing out thousand of jobs in the process, and a vice president equally so by allegations of her effort to fund the release of criminals from BLM and Antifa?

Is this the “dictatorship” that comes when power is assured by a system manipulated in the favour of the would-be dictator, as much as the fraudulent manipulation of elections is the basis of Maduro’s, who has reduced his country to a dustbin? Or Vladimir Putin’s who is alleged to have poisoned opposition leader Alexei Navalny and has now imprisoned him? Or Alexander Lukashenko’s in the Far East who uses the army to maintain power even as thousands continue to protest over alleged fraudulent elections?

Which is why the THA election is a breath of fresh air amidst the stench of international electoral manipulation – that is until now.

DR ERROL N BENJAMIN

via e-mail