Dr. In­di­ra Ram­per­sad

A his­tor­i­cal jour­ney through the mar­gin­al con­stituen­cies to ex­am­ine the pat­terns of vot­ing over the decades is use­ful for a broad per­spec­tive of lo­cal pol­i­tics.

Barataria/San Juan

Barataria/San Juan was orig­i­nal­ly called San Juan in 1956 when it was first won by Robert Ed­ward Wal­lace for the PNM. It emerged in 1961 as a con­stituen­cy sim­ply named "Barataria" se­cured by Ka­malud­din Mo­hammed for the PNM, with 7,513 votes to the DLP's JA R Kel­ly's 5,835. In 1966, the seat would be bro­ken up in­to Barataria (again fought by Ka­malud­din Mo­hammed for the PNM), San Juan East and San Juan West, fought for the PNM by Lloyd Christo­pher Phillips and Shamshud­din Mo­hammed, re­spec­tive­ly. All three seats were won by the PNM. In 1971, Barataria dis­ap­peared but San Juan East and San Juan West re­mained and were fought and won by the same PNM can­di­dates. Barataria re-emerged as a con­stituen­cy in 1976 and San Juan East and West merged in­to San Juan. Both seats were won by the PNM. Ka­malud­din Mo­hammed again won the seat in 1981, even though the ONR emerged as a third par­ty, split­ting the votes. The cur­rent name, Barataria/San Juan, was born in 1986 when, like 32 oth­ers, the seat was won by the NAR coali­tion. Ken­neth Butch­er won that seat. In 1991, Dr Lin­da Ba­boolal wrest­ed the seat for the PNM, but from 1995 through the 2000, 2001 and 2002 elec­tions, Dr Fuad Khan won for the UNC. In 2007, the PNM's Joseph Ross took the seat from the UNC due to the COP split­ting the votes. The com­bined UNC/COP votes of 2007 showed 2,096 more than the PNM.

Ma­yaro

The seat cur­rent­ly known as Ma­yaro, emerged as Or­toire-Ma­yaro in 1961 and was con­sis­tent­ly held by the PNM's Vic­tor Li­onel Camp­bell, through the 1961,1966, and 1976 elec­tions. In 1981, Leon Pre­vatt re­tained the seat for the PNM, but Sel­wyn Richard­son grabbed it for the NAR in the 33-3 sweep of 1986. The PNM's Kei­th So­bion again won it for the PNM in 1991, but lost it to the UNC's Razak Ali in 1995.

Win­ston Gyp­sy Pe­ters won the seat twice for the UNC, in 2000 and 2001, but Franklin Khan brought it back to the PNM in 2002. Pe­ters re­turned in 2007 and won the seat even with the COP split­ting the votes.

Pointe-a-Pierre

Pointe-a-Pierre has al­so been vac­il­lat­ing be­tween the par­ties over time. In 1956, the seat was won by Ash­ford Sinanan for the Peo­ple's De­mo­c­ra­t­ic Par­ty (PDP) and by the De­mo­c­ra­t­ic Labour Par­ty's (DLP) Pe­ter Far­quhar in 1961. Lil­ias Wight re­tained the seat for the DLP in 1966, but the No Vote Cam­paign of 1971 gave the seat to the PNM, which it re­tained in 1976 and 1981 be­cause of the ONR's split­ting of the votes. The NAR's Os­wald Hem­lee grabbed it from the PNM in 1986, but the PNM's Cyril Ra­jaram won in 1991. Through­out the 1995, 2000, 2001 and 2002 elec­tions, the seat was held by the UNC's Dhan­raj Singh, William Chai­tan and Gillian Lucky, re­spec­tive­ly. The COP split­ting of the votes in 2007 re­sult­ed in the PNM's Chris­tine Kan­ga­loo win­ning the seat. But the com­bined UNC/COP votes amount to a coali­tion ad­van­tage of 2,449 votes in 2010.

St Joseph

In 1956, Ka­malud­din Mo­hammed won St Joseph for the PNM. The par­ty re­tained the seat in 1961, 1966, 1971 and 1976 un­til it was wrest­ed by the NAR's Car­son Charles in 1986. The seat re­turned to the PNM un­der Au­gus­tus Ram­rek­ers­ingh in 1991, but was con­trolled by the UNC un­der Mervin As­sam in 1995, Car­los John in 2000 and 2001 and Ger­ald Yet­ming in 2002. The COP split­ting of the votes in 2007 re­sult­ed in the PNM's Kennedy Swarats­ingh win­ning the seat against the UNC's Car­son Charles and the COP's Gillian Lucky. The com­bined UNC/COP votes in 2007 out­num­bered that of the PNM by 1,124.

San Fer­nan­do West

San Fer­nan­do West was held by the PNM's Win­ston Ma­habir in 1956, Saied Mo­hammed in 1961, and Er­rol Ma­habir in 1966, 1976 and 1981, un­til it was wrest­ed by the NAR's Anselm St George in 1986. The seat re­turned to the PNM un­der Ralph Maraj in 1991 and Baren­dra Sinanan in 1995. But in 2000 and 2001, it was tak­en by Sadiq Baksh for the UNC. The PNM's Di­ane Seuk­er­an se­cured it again in 2002. The re­sults of the 2007 elec­tion showed a tight race with the com­bined UNC and COP votes still re­sult­ing in a PNM vic­to­ry by 114 votes.

Tu­na­puna

Tu­na­puna has al­ways been close­ly con­test­ed. It was won by the PNM's Learie Con­stan­tine in 1956 and con­tin­ued to be won by the PNM through the 1961, 1966, 1971, 1976 and 1981 elec­tions. Af­ter the NAR grabbed it in 1986, it re­turned to the PNM un­der Ed­ward Hart in 1991 and 1995. In 2000, the UNC's Mervyn As­sam won the seat by a tight mar­gin, the first time a sin­gle par­ty was able to wrest it from the PNM. But it re­turned re­turn to the PNM in 2001, 2002 and 2007.

The com­bined UNC and COP votes in 2007 still re­sult­ed in a PNM vic­to­ry by 641 votes.

To­ba­go East

To­ba­go East has an in­ter­est­ing his­to­ry of vot­ing against the PNM when­ev­er there is a vi­able al­ter­na­tive. ANR Robin­son won the seat for the PNM in 1961 and 1966, but he pulled out of the PNM to lead the No Vote cam­paign in 1971. There­after, Robin­son formed his own par­ty, the De­mo­c­ra­t­ic Ac­tion Con­gress (DAC), and won To­ba­go East in 1976. In 1981, Pamela Nichol­son won the seat again for the DAC. With Robin­son as leader of the NAR and can­di­date for To­ba­go East, the seat was won by about 3000 votes more than the PNM in 1986. The NAR con­tin­ued to win the seat in 1991, 1995 and 2000, but lost it to the PNM in 2001, 2002 and 2007. The TUF/DAC al­liance com­bined with the COP votes led to a PNM vic­to­ry by 976 votes in 2007.

The new seats

Lopinot Bon/Air, Ch­agua­nas East and Moru­ga/Table­land (for­mer­ly Princes Town South) are all new seats cre­at­ed in 2007 with the in­crease in con­stituen­cies from 36 to 41.