BitDepth#1507
Mark Lyndersay
MUCH OF the digital battle for attention in the upcoming election on April 28 has been focused on social media platforms. Those spaces are magnets for siloed thinking, stoking heated statements but do little to expand the conversation beyond providing echo chambers for the committed.
The Elections and Boundaries Commission lists voter turnouts for the 2015 and 2010 elections as part of its record of election participation since 1946.
That year, an average of 69.6 per cent of registered voters showed up at the polls.
Except for the "covid" election, with a turnout of 58 per cent, voter turnout has been at 65 per cent or higher since 1986. The lowest number of citizens exercising their franchise was in 1971, when just 33.3 per cent of citizens voted in a widespread protest over voting machines.
In 1956, 82.4 per cent of the electorate voted and 88 per cent voted in 1961.
TT elections have settled into a pattern of clear electoral support largely defined by geography and underpinned by race-based preferences.
The voters who have already made up their minds are not the real factor in this year's general election; it is the 25-30 per cent of eligible voters who haven't voted for decades.
The profile of that citizen disinterest is likely to be radically different today than it was in 1986. Some part of that undecided/jaded/disinterested faction is likely to be young and either confused or annoyed by political discourse that is either party-aggrandising, thin on real-world impact and argumentative.
A website on the open internet is an opportunity for a political party to hang its shingle in a space of its own making, defining its character, positions and plans.
Under review are five political parties contesting the election this year, those with the most to lose, the most to gain and the most visible public profile.
The People's National Movement has allowed its older pnm.live domain security to stagnate. The 2020 election website is now blocked by modern browsers.
Replacing it is votepnm.org, registered in July 2023. The site has good discoverability, showing up fourth on the first page of Google's listings (sites were searched using "full party name, Trinidad and Tobago").
The site offers a proper listing of its candidates, with photographs and short biographies.
Text is minimal, and some candidate statements are made direct to video but there are none for candidates in difficult seats who need profile-raising.
There is no published manifesto, and voter persuasion points are made via short videos, including one that touts the party's role in securing the Dragon energy deal. The site is slow to load.
The uncofficial.org domain has lapsed, and the active website of the United National Congress is unctt.org, registered in February 2013. The site is first ranked for the search term and has good SEO.
This is a catch-all site for the party, so it's disconcerting to find old news and statements on the home page alongside recent speeches and press rele
