The leader of the Reform Party Roshi Bhadain seems to be his own worst enemy. Since his break with the MSM back in 2017, he has attempted to be taken seriously by the three big opposition parties. So when the Labour Party, MMM and the PMSD talk about an electoral alliance between them, Bhadain wants part of that. The trouble is that the way he goes about trying to grab their attention often does more harm than good. 

For starters, the three main parties have enough on their plate already: the leadership of the Labour Party is still an unresolved matter which makes it difficult to resolve who this budding alliance will line up behind as their candidate for prime minister. The putative bloc also has to carefully walk a tightrope to manage the expectations of the MMM and the PMSD; parties that are rivals for the same vote bank and this being the first time ever that Paul Bérenger and Xavier-Luc Duval will be in the same alliance. That is to say that the last thing that this ultra-fragile arrangement (assuming it lasts) needs is an uncontrollable wildcard that rushes about the china shop. 

The trouble is that so far Bhadain’s tactics to prove his utility to the big three in the opposition has a tendency to put them in a tight spot politically. In 2017, for instance, Bhadain abruptly resigned and sparked a by-election in Quatre Bornes aiming to turn it into an unofficial referendum on the Metro Express. Instead the government sat out the by-election while the three opposition parties ended up at each other’s throats. The bad blood resulting from that limited campaign contributed to their spectacular miscalculation to shun alliances (except for Labour and PMSD) resulting in their defeat in 2019. 

Then this month Bhadain demanded that all the opposition parliamentarians collectively resign explaining in public that this would somehow force the government to hold new elections. The opposition refused. They were right in their calculation that all this would do is give the government a super-majority in parliament for nine months and a free hand to introduce constitutional amendments. For those not inclined to understand the difference between Bhadain and the opposition’s understanding of the constitution, it painted the opposition as unwilling to give up their parliamentary privileges and do what Bhadain did in 2017. It was an absurd suggestion, a correct refusal, but the opposition looked bad without the government having to lift a finger. 

This week the Supreme Court also threw out Bhadain’s legal challenge to the 2019 election. Bhadain was the first to put in a case in the Supreme Court, asking for a judicial review instead of asking for a simple recount as the other parties did, calculating that the lower burden of evidence required in the latter meant a greater chance of success.  Now Bhadain’s case has fallen flat, the opposition is saying that they knew all along his legal tactic could not succeed, but Bhadain’s haste has meant that now, once again for those unable or unwilling to note the legal distinction between the two types of cases involved, the opposition parties’ cases have lost a bit of their sheen. Once again, the government had to do nothing but wait for Bhadain’s poor tactics to make the opposition look worse. 

The opposition would already have a hard sell giving Bhadain a place in their “alliance”; there is the history of Bhadain’s role as minister in the BAI collapse as well as the commission of enquiry on the Britam Kenya affair that still has to be made public to think about. The least they would be expecting is for an easygoing ally rocking the boat as little as possible, not one that ends up embarrassing them at every turn.