Local government polls deadlock in Trinidad

Giving an indication of what is likely to happen in general elections in mid-2025, voters in Trinidad have opted to evenly share the number of corporations the two major parties will control in local government elections held in the oil and gas-rich twin island republic on Monday.

In a stunning repeat of the results of the last municipal elections held in 2019, electors gave the governing Afro-dominated People’s National Movement (PNM) control of seven of the 14 municipal corporations and did the same for the Indo-backed, main opposition United National Congress (UNC) of former prime minister and opposition leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar.

The result is that the midterm elections might well have set the stage for what is to come in general elections in two years’ time as the trend to vote along racial lines appeared to continue in Monday’s contest.

In the current parliamentary configuration, the PNM holds 22 of the 41 seats, losing one in the previous 2015 elections to the UNC. Prime Minister Keith Rowley says the party will immediately switch to preparations for 2025 amid a plethora of doom and gloom accusations by the UNC and two other smaller parties with which it has teamed up.

“In the middle of our second term, we in the PNM are very happy that we’ve performed. Notwithstanding the relentless barrage of hopelessness and anger and whatever else, we went in with seven areas and we have come out with seven. Well done. We’re quite happy not to have been defeated and not lost ground in the middle of our second term. Come let us build a nation,” Rowley said, speaking at party headquarters.

For her party, Persad-Bissessar said her party had made important inroads into several traditional strongholds of the PNM this time around. For her, this augurs well for the future she said.

 “In spite of all the PNM has spent, we have done so well. The accommodation with the NTA gave the PNM a run for their money. I do not have the final numbers but we would have gained the popular vote, that is more votes than PNM has. In Couva, we have all 14 out of 14 seats. It used to be 14, now we’ve won 15 out of 15. In Mayaro, we had five out of six, we now have six out of seven,” she said to loud applause from supporters.

Crime, largely linked to gangland murders, abductions and contract killings was a key campaign issue along with inflation and joblessness.

The turnout is believed to have been under 40 percent compared to 35 in 2019. More than one million people were eligible to vote.