PM battling on 2 fronts as Trinidad votes

The people of Trinidad and Tobago voted Monday in elections that had the prime minister battling both the opposition and an upstart splinter party launched by disgraced football honcho Jack Warner.

Opinion polls were divided heading into the vote, with some putting the race too close to call and others giving Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar and her coalition the edge -- albeit by a significantly reduced margin.

Persad-Bissessar's main challenger is volcanologist Keith Rowley of the People's National Movement (PNM), the party that has governed the twin-island nation more than any other since independence from Britain in 1964.

But the prime minister is also fighting the potential spoiler effect of the Independent Liberal Party (ILP) launched by her one-time ally Warner, a politically powerful lawmaker and football executive.

Warner, 72, is battling extradition to the United States after being indicted in the sweeping US probe of allegations of massive corruption at FIFA, a scandal that has rocked the world football governing body since it broke in May.

The long-time parliament member launched the ILP after Persad-Bissessar sacked him from her cabinet two years ago. He has put up 21 candidates for the 41-seat House of Representatives, including himself.

Warner's party is expected to poach votes mainly from the prime minister's coalition, the People's Partnership. And it has concentrated its candidates in districts where a split would favor the PNM.

There was large turnout as polling stations opened at 6:00 am (1000 GMT). The country's 1.1 million voters have until 6:00 pm to cast their ballots, with results expected near midnight.

Persad-Bissessar, a 63-year-old attorney, leads the United National Congress (UNC), a party that grew out of a trade union for sugar plantation workers, mainly of East Indian origin.
The bulk of its support continues to come from the sugar belt areas in central and south Trinidad.

Her coalition also includes the Congress of the People, a UNC splinter that rejoined its coalition to contest the last polls in 2010, and the National Joint Action Committee, an organization that was at the forefront of the islands' Black Power Movement in the 1970s.

Persad-Bissessar, who has been in office since 2010, continues to enjoy high popularity ratings, but has struggled to fend off corruption allegations, concerns about violent crime and an economic contraction.

Her claims of stabilizing the economy and maintaining growth despite a drop in the islands' oil and gas revenues were debunked by statistics released three days from the vote indicating the economy contracted by 1.2 percent and unemployment increased to 3.7 percent, with the loss of more than 20,000 jobs in the first quarter of the year.
Source: AFP