UWI lecturer on 2011 census: Mixed-race figures can change voting pattern in T&T

Posted in Articles, Caribbean/Latin America, Census/Demographics, Media Archive, Politics/Public Policy on 2013-02-26 04:02Z by Steven

UWI lecturer on 2011 census: Mixed-race figures can change voting pattern in T&T

Guardian Media
Trinidad & Tobago Guardian Online
2013-02-22

Raphael John-Lall

The view that there is race-based voting in T&T is a mere “illusion,” says Dr Fuad Khan, Minister of Health and UNC MP for the Barataria/San Juan constituency. “We do not have race-based voting in T&T. We have political party voting. The illusion of race voting comes from the fact that the large ethnic groups historically support either political party. But race is not a huge factor, it is less that five per cent,” Khan told the T&T Guardian on Wednesday.
 
In the 2011 Population and Housing Census Demographic Report results released on Tuesday, the latest statistics show almost a quarter of T&T is racially mixed, giving rise to the phenomenon of T&T as a country of “minority races.” According to the census, 22.8 per cent or approximately 302,788 people in T&T are racially mixed. East Indians comprise 35.4 per cent of the population while people of African descent form 34.2 per cent.
 
Of the “mixed” category, 7.7 per cent refer to themselves as Douglas and 15.1 per cent are mixed but not Indian/African. All other ethnic groups totalled 1.4 per cent while 6.2 per cent of the population did not declare an ethnicity. University of the West Indies (UWI) lecturer and economist Hayden Blades said the census results should now be used as a platform to determine voting patterns in the future…

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