TT: No more electoral deadlocks

The one problem that won't arise again if the country agrees to add five new constituencies to the existing 36, making it a total of 41, is that of an electoral deadlock such as resulted from the 2001 general election.

Nor, of course, will the President of the country then be placed on the horns of a dilemma by having personally to decide who will be Prime Minister - as former President Robinson had to do in the case of Messrs Manning and Panday in 2002.

To this day, former Prime Minister Basdeo Panday blames former President Robinson for the relatively early demise of the UNC government.

It is also a critical decision that Mr Robinson himself has never gone into any great detail to explain, though for certain it was an unprecedented situation.

That apart, however, public sentiment on adding five new seats to our Parliament as proposed by the Elections and Boundaries Commission appears relatively mild, and certainly more in favour than against.