TriniTuner.com | Latest Event:
Moderator: 3ne2nr Mods
Hoss.....shake d livin wake d dead wrote:Let's see if this ched title gonna change
Crime, Migration and a 5-Year Recession Fire Up Trinidad Voters
By Jim Wyss www.bloomberg.com
August 10, 2020, 4:00 AM GMT-4
Economy suffered a lost decade amid falling natural gas output
Prime Minister Keith Rowley has been in power since 2015
Trinidad and Tobago is holding parliamentary elections Monday amid soaring crime, a migration crisis and the longest recession in the Americas after neighboring Venezuela.
Polls indicate that Prime Minister Keith Rowley’s ruling People’s National Movement (PNM) has a narrow lead over its chief rival, the United National Congress (UNC).
Keith Rowley GETTY sub
Keith RowleySource: AFP via Getty Images
Trinidad’s oil and gas resources have long given the islands’ 1.4 million residents one of the highest standards of living in the Americas. But the economy contracted in seven of the last ten years and and is smaller now than it was in 2008, amid falling natural gas output and worsening levels of competitiveness.
Successive governments have kicked the can down the road on tackling issues such as the massive fiscal deficit and the overvalued currency, but things may come to a head after the next administration takes office, said Marla Dukharan, a Trinidadian economist who produces the Caribbean Economic Report.
“I believe that in about a year, Trinidad and Tobago will run into a balance of payments crisis and need to go to the IMF,” for a bailout, she said. “Only then are we going to see the kind of meaningful and positive shifts in policy that we have needed for the last 10 years.”
Polls will be open from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday and preliminary results are expected Monday night. More than 15 other parties are also competing for the 41 seats in parliament.
The elections come as incumbents across the region have recently been swept out of office, including in Suriname, Guyana and the Dominican Republic.
Oil and Gas
Trinidad’s fiscal deficit will be about 11% of gross domestic product this year, according to the IMF’s forecast, and poverty and unemployment are rising.
Oil and gas account for 26% of the nation’s GDP and 80% of its exports. This over-dependence on energy is the root of many of the country’s troubles, said Roger Hosein, an economist at the University of the West Indies.
The PNM draws most of its support from voters of African descent, while the UNC is mainly supported by people whose ancestors came from Asia. There are no significant ideological differences separating the parties.
Violent Crime
Much of the campaign has focused on rising violent crime, the Covid-19 crisis and on immigration from Venezuela.
The country has a higher murder rate per-capita than Colombia, Brazil and Mexico, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, and last year reported 539 homicides. The UNC has proposed giving the army the power of arrest to deal with rising gang violence and the PNM is pushing to build more police stations across the two main islands.
Another election issue has been the arrival of migrants from the imploding economy of Venezuela, less than 10 miles away by boat, with both campaigns pledging more controls.
The country has about 24,000 Venezuelan migrants, according to a U.N. report this month, though the true figure may be higher since its been more than a year since Trinidad and Tobago allowed them to register, said Jessica Boulter, an analyst at the Migration Policy Institute, a Washington-based think tank.
The country has adopted some of the harshest measures toward migrants in the region, such as not allowing Venezuelan children attend public schools, she added.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles ... dad-voters
Okshake d livin wake d dead wrote:I guess this ched gonna run until 2025
zoom rader wrote:Okshake d livin wake d dead wrote:I guess this ched gonna run until 2025
First question, who or what PNM going to blame now for the failure of the last 5 years
Better start to pay your taxesNumb3r4 wrote:From that Bloomberg article Marla said we are about 1 year from the IMF that just around the corner.
Would COVID-19 accelerate this, if we have another lockdown?
I was hoping PNM to win by default with 42 seats.maj. tom wrote:zoom rader wrote:Okshake d livin wake d dead wrote:I guess this ched gonna run until 2025
First question, who or what PNM going to blame now for the failure of the last 5 years
what failure? The country has voted and PNM are winners.
Haven't we got what we wanted since 2015? There is no failure according to the voters.
Nothing has changed. You know that, since 1956.
Stop being so bitter. The country shall get what it wants. Ent we wanted all the taxes and potholes and more corruption and suffering? Once is the PNM doing it, it's ok. Relax it's ok. Since 1956 it's ok. Well ent we got all those things? Relax yourself and enjoy the next 5 years. All now i hearing people in the road blowing horn and bawling "Great is the PNM!"
Well who's to tell them they're wrong? We get want we wanted.
zoom rader wrote:You took that bait?death365 wrote:so no goodies for a next 2 years (which is 3 budgets) , i guess ill have to wait for the no taxes on electronics an cell phones :( an that the only reason ah vote them
Did you ever get a goodie in the last 5 years
Return to “Ole talk and more Ole talk”
Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 12 guests
