(Trinidad Express) It is 7-7.
In the 14 corporations, both the United National Congress (UNC) and the People’s National Move-ment (PNM) maintained control of their respective corporations.
The PNM kept the Diego Martin, Port of Spain, San Juan/Laventille, Tunapuna/Piarco, Arima, Port Fortin and San Fernando corporations, while the UNC retained Couva/Tabaquite/Talparo, Mayaro/Rio Claro, Penal/ Debe, Princes Town, Siparia, Sangre Grande and Chaguanas.
In the last local government election, the PNM won all the seats in the Diego Martin, Port of Spain, Point Fortin and Arima corporations. Now, in 2023, the PNM won all but Arima where it got six of the seven seats as there is a tie. There will have to be a recount there.
The UNC won all 15 seats in Couva/Tabaquite/ Talparo, getting the new Couva Roystonia seat and all ten seats in the Penal/Debe Regional Corporation.
There was however some slippage for the ruling party in Sangre Grande and San Fernando. The Sangre Grande Corpora-tion has moved from 5/3 in the UNC’s favour to 6/2 in the UNC’s favour, with the PNM losing the Valencia West seat to the UNC candidate Neil Da Silva, a former Olympian.
In the San Fernando corporation, while the control remains with the PNM, the seat distribution moved from 6/3 in the PNM’s favour to 5/4 in the PNM’s favour. Marcus Girdharrie, who crossed over from the UNC to the PNM, lost by 12 votes in the Marabella South seat he had won by 130 votes in 2019. The PNM lost the Marabella West seat by 27 votes. It had narrowly won this district in 2019 by 87 votes. There will be recounts in both these seats.
On the flip side, the PNM registered a gain in the Princes Town corporation where the UNC had previously held all ten seats. The PNM won one seat there.
The UNC targeted the San Fernando municipality and it paid off. The party was hoping to get the Cocoyea/Tarouba seat in order to win the corporation, but it lost that seat by 48 votes.
No major change in power balance
All in all, there was no major change in the political power balance in this local government election. The UNC narrowly lost one seat in the Arima Borough Corporation and in the Tunapuna/Piarco Regional Corporation, seats which the party had stood to gain from the PNM.
In the Tunapuna/Piarco Regional Corporation, the PNM won 11 and the UNC five seats; in the San Juan Laventille corporation, the PNM won 11 while the UNC won three seats. In Chaguanas, the UNC won seven seats while the PNM retained its one seat. In Princes Town, the UNC won nine seats while the PNM got one seat. In Siparia, the UNC won six seats while the PNM retained three seats. In Mayaro/Rio Claro, the UNC won six seats while the PNM won one.
Out of the 141 seats, the UNC won 72 and the PNM 69, a slight change of the 2019 election where the PNM had won 72 and the UNC 67.
Preliminary reports suggest the voter turnout remained at the traditional 30 per cent, suggesting that no campaign sufficiently moved the electorate to come out in larger numbers.
Rowley satisfied
Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley expressed satisfaction with the result. “We went in with seven, and tonight we have come out with seven,” he said, addressing the media at the party’s renovated Balisier House in Port of Spain last night.
He noted that the party had several losses by a few votes, but acknowledged it was only when you “crossed the line” that victory is yours.
“We lost a seat in San Fernando by a few votes. But most importantly…San Fernando remains in PNM hands to effect local government reform. We have won a seat in Princes Town Corporation. We had nobody in that corporation…so we are delighted. We fought hard in Sangre Grande,” he said.
He said he was glad that the local government election was now over because so much of the country’s national energies had been focused on the “call the election” mantra.
“We now move forward to the general election. But until that election is called and is upon us, we have serious work to do as a nation,” he said.
He said the Government had to make a number of decisions which had not found favour with the people who are affected by them personally.
The Prime Minister said he was particularly pleased that having taken on the mantle of office during a difficult time that “midway through our second term, we have been able to hold on to seven corporations.
“Now move on to the general election,” he said, “but until that election is upon us, we have serious decisions to make.”
He expressed confidence that the devolution process in local government would bring benefits to the population.
Noting the UNC had opposed local government reform, the Prime Minister said: “I am trusting that now that the election is out of the way and that the results are known, that common sense will prevail and that the leadership across the island, the Parliament and in all the corporations, that they will work with the Government as we implement local government reform. The election is over.”
Asked about the number of votes which the National Transformation Alliance (NTA) garnered in Diego Martin, the Prime Minister said the PNM had added two more political parties to the list of political parties defeated by the PNM.
He said it didn’t matter how many votes they got, the PNM won all the seats in Diego Martin. “My grandmother taught me that no matter how the situation is, it could easily have been so much worse,” he said.
“Some people tried to fight this election on national issues. We did not engage them much. But now that we are going forward to a general election,sometime in the not too distant future, the battle will be joined,” the Prime Minister said.
The smaller parties were obliterated from an electoral perspective, as they failed to get any of the seats that they contested.
CORPORATIONS WONPNM
Arima
Diego Martin
Point Fortin
Port of Spain
San Fernando
San Juan/Laventille
Tunapuna/Piarco
UNC
Chaguanas
Couva/Tabaquite/Talparo
Mayaro/Rio Claro
Penal/Debe
Princes Town
Sangre Grande
Siparia
