NTA's uphill fight

CLEARLY intuiting that any collaboration with the opposition UNC was politically unfeasible now, National Transformation Alliance (NTA) leader Gary Griffith announced to his supporters at a rally on March 12, that his party would forge its identity as a third-party contender in this year's general election.

Mr Griffith already signalled his intention to forge ahead without the UNC, of which he was a minister when it led the People's Partnership coalition, in September 2024. He announced that the NTA would field candidates in ten constituencies that the opposition party had identified as critical battlegrounds.

He faces an uphill battle.

Choosing to eschew gutter politics in his plan might be admirable, but the NTA and any coalition partner he hopes to attract will have to work that much harder to excite and engage citizens on walkabouts and rallies.

Mr Griffith has described the NTA as a party that will represent the "bridge constituency" of voters who have not chosen to support either the PNM or the UNC.

There is no clear accounting of how large this group of voters is in TT, but estimates of between 20 and 30 per cent are frequently cited. That's not a number that will bring any third political party into power, but it can bring individuals into the House of Representatives, as it did for ANR Robinson in 1976 when the Democratic Action Congress (DAC) swept Tobago.

The experience of the Organisation for National Reconstruction (ONR) in the 1981 general election dovetails into this political narrative. The ONR won 22 per cent of the vote in 1981 but no seats in Parliament. The United Labour Front (ULF) with 15.2 per cent of the voting public won ten seats.

There is another role in national politics for a third political contender. It would not be until 1986, when the success of the DAC and the voter representation of the ONR would be merged with the ULF to take the coalition NAR to power, crushing the PNM at the polls.

The UNC's decision in January to withdraw from the Council for Responsible Political Behaviour, a civil society body dedicated to monitoring the quality of political discourse during an election, sent a troubling signal.

In 2023, Dr Keith Rowley directed the PNM body politic to ignore the findings of the council regarding the party's campaign rhetoric.

Mr Griffith's decision to raise the quality of dialogue and discussion on the 2025 campaign trail is a step in the right direction. Should he choose to take that to its logical end, positioning his party as a resource for rational discussion, surfacing real issues and offering practical, relatable solutions, the quality of political campaigning might improve this year.

Any success in third-party politics is a long game. Wooing the undecided voter is a foot in the door. Persuading the politically aligned will take time.