Colourful contours

POLITICS is about optics. The election bell has not been rung formally, but already parties are sending cues as to how the next poll is going to be contested.

The adoption by the United National Congress (UNC) of the colour blue at a party event in Chaguanas on September 1 was no small thing. At the event, UNC political leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar, deputy political leader Dr Roodal Moonilal and party organiser Barry Padarath were among those photographed wearing predominantly blue T-shirts bearing yellow UNC logos.

This move provoked the chagrin of Gary Griffith’s National Transformation Alliance (NTA), with the party expressing “interest and amusement” and alleging it might be designed to mimic or to sow confusion.

But the gesture did more than reflect the breakdown of the alliance between the UNC and Mr Griffith’s party. It telegraphed the UNC’s confidence that the NTA is no longer a relevant factor. It underlined the UNC’s interest in rebranding itself. It suggested, since blue is associated with the police, the party’s perception of crime as the election’s determining issue. And it expressed a wish to go beyond grassroots support and to court the national electorate.

The ruling People’s National Movement (PNM), too, is sending signals to a wider base, though through entirely different means.

In placing emphasis on the screening of candidates for ten more UNC-held constituencies last month, it has done two things. It has pointed to Ms Persad-Bissessar’s leadership, even after the results of an internal poll. And it has painted the PNM as a party that wishes to cater to all, no matter one’s traditional political allegiance, whether in a UNC “safe seat” or not. History shows it is the marginal, swing seats that determine who sits in Whitehall, but the PNM knows it loses nothing in relation to undecided voters by suggesting Balisier House is a place for all.

If the PNM and the UNC are angling for wider reach, it is notable the NTA this week signalled it will contest only ten marginal seats – precisely those identified by the UNC as crucial to its goal of securing a 25-seat majority.

With the NTA securing just about five per cent of the votes nationally in the local government elections of 2023, this likely reflects the reality of limited resources and the need for a smarter focus on fluid constituency races.

But it also means Mr Griffith does not envision his party as holding the reins of government, but rather as a kingmaker or even a potential spoiler who must be reckoned with by all.

For the moment.

Perhaps more concerning to the UNC will be its “dissidents” who secured 20 per cent of internal poll votes.

What’s certain is, as the end of the current Parliament approaches, politics will become more colourful.