Gail Alexan­der

Se­nior Po­lit­i­cal Re­porter

It’s of­fi­cial: a to­tal of 161 can­di­dates - and 17 po­lit­i­cal par­ties - will be con­test­ing the April 28 Gen­er­al Elec­tion.

This was an­nounced by the Elec­tions and Bound­aries Com­mis­sion (EBC) Chief Elec­tion Of­fi­cer Fern Nar­cis last night, fol­low­ing yes­ter­day’s Nom­i­na­tion Day ex­er­cise.

Can­di­dates seek­ing to con­test the Par­lia­men­tary elec­tion and win seats in the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives filed their nom­i­na­tion doc­u­ments with EBC’s re­turn­ing of­fi­cers in Trinidad and To­ba­go’s 41 con­stituen­cies.

Flur­ries of ac­tiv­i­ty took place around the EBC of­fices. Sup­port­ers from the dif­fer­ent par­ties, dressed in their par­ty colours to sup­port their re­spec­tive can­di­dates, pa­rad­ed to the of­fices ac­com­pa­nied by mu­sic trucks, tas­sa or rhythm sec­tions. They were ac­com­pa­nied by re­spec­tive cam­paign man­agers and elec­tion agents.

Last night, the EBC, in a brief re­lease, stat­ed that 161 can­di­dates will be con­test­ing and 17 po­lit­i­cal par­ties have field­ed can­di­dates for the up­com­ing elec­tion.

There will al­so be three in­de­pen­dent can­di­dates in the 2025 race.

The EBC al­pha­bet­i­cal­ly list­ed the 17 par­ties and num­ber of can­di­dates in­volved.

The In­de­pen­dent can­di­dates are Ernesto Singh (Ch­agua­nas East), Vi­vian John­son (Port-of-Spain North/St Ann’s West) and Leroy George (To­ba­go West).

A to­tal of 19 po­lit­i­cal par­ties con­test­ed the 2020 Gen­er­al elec­tion.

PNM, UNC with the most can­di­dates

Guardian Me­dia checks of the fig­ures con­firmed that the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) - which is cur­rent­ly the Gov­ern­ment - is the on­ly par­ty field­ing can­di­dates for all 41 con­stituen­cies. The PNM’s po­lit­i­cal leader is for­mer prime min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley. Prime Min­is­ter Stu­art Young heads the Gov­ern­ment.

The Op­po­si­tion Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC), led by Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar, is field­ing 39 can­di­dates with­in its Coali­tion of In­ter­ests with part­ners. The UNC has 34 can­di­dates of its own and its part­ners Pro­gres­sive Em­pow­er­ment Par­ty (PEP - three) and Con­gress of the Peo­ple (COP - two).

The Pa­tri­ot­ic Front, head­ed by Mick­ela Pan­day, field­ed 37 can­di­dates. It ini­tial­ly pro­ject­ed field­ing 41.

Gary Grif­fith’s Na­tion­al Trans­for­ma­tion Al­liance (NTA) is field­ing 17 can­di­dates.

All oth­er par­ties have be­tween one and eight can­di­dates.

At 2.25 pm, UNC gen­er­al sec­re­tary Pe­ter Kan­hai con­firmed that all 39 can­di­dates had filed their nom­i­na­tion pa­pers.

At 2.52 pm, a brief state­ment from PNM gen­er­al sec­re­tary Fos­ter Cum­mings con­firmed all of PNM’s 41 can­di­dates had suc­cess­ful­ly filed nom­i­na­tions with­out en­coun­ter­ing chal­lenges and all can­di­dates were in place.

Cum­mings said, “The PNM is com­mit­ted to pro­vid­ing rep­re­sen­ta­tion and good gov­er­nance, and takes no cit­i­zen for grant­ed– re­gard­less of ge­o­graph­i­cal lo­ca­tion, ed­u­ca­tion­al back­ground, eco­nom­ic stand­ing, eth­nic­i­ty or oth­er­wise. It is on this premise that the PNM has yet again of­fered a PNM can­di­date to every sin­gle vot­er in every sin­gle con­stituen­cy in Trinidad and To­ba­go. The PNM con­tin­ues to be the on­ly true na­tion­al par­ty in Trinidad and To­ba­go, res­olute in its ded­i­ca­tion to every cit­i­zen.”

The PNM pre­sent­ed its can­di­dates at a March 16 ral­ly at Wood­ford Square, Port-of-Spain. Its man­i­festo is ex­pect­ed to be launched April 14.

UNC meet­ing EBC Mon­day

UNC par­ty or­gan­is­er Bar­ry Padarath (Cou­va South can­di­date) said the UNC field­ed 39 can­di­dates in Trinidad, as it had al­ways main­tained that the peo­ple of To­ba­go should choose their rep­re­sen­ta­tives in their best in­ter­est from what em­anates there. He said all UNC can­di­dates had com­plet­ed their fil­ings by 11 am.

The UNC presents its can­di­dates from 5 pm to­day at the Cen­tre of Ex­cel­lence.

The UNC’s man­i­festo will be launched im­mi­nent­ly. The par­ty al­so pro­duced “Minifestos” - cap­sule ver­sions on spe­cif­ic as­pects.

Num­ber of GE can­di­dates by par­ties

All Peo­ple’s Par­ty - 8

Class Ac­tion Re­form Move­ment - 1

Con­gress of the Peo­ple - 2

In­no­v­a­tive De­mo­c­ra­t­ic Al­liance - 2

Move­ment for Na­tion­al De­vel­op­ment - 1

Na­tion­al Coali­tion for Trans­for­ma­tion - 2

Na­tion­al Trans­for­ma­tion Al­liance - 17

New Na­tion­al Vi­sion - 1

Pa­tri­ot­ic Front - 37

Peo­ple’s De­mo­c­ra­t­ic Pa­tri­ots - 2

Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment - 41

Pro­gres­sive Em­pow­er­ment Par­ty - 3

The Hyari­ma Move­ment - 1

To­ba­go Peo­ple’s Par­ty - 2

Trinidad Hu­man­i­ty Cam­paign - 3

Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress - 34

Uni­ty of the Peo­ple - 1

In­de­pen­dents

Ernesto Singh (Ch­agua­nas East)

Vi­vian John­son (Port-of-Spain North/St Ann’s West)

Leroy George (To­ba­go West)