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Thursday, May 29, 2025

Low voter turnout for Monday’s election

UNC wins 26 seats, PNM 13, TPP 2

by

29 days ago
20250430
Voters line up to cast their ballots outside the St Benedict’s RC School polling station in La Romain on Monday.

Voters line up to cast their ballots outside the St Benedict’s RC School polling station in La Romain on Monday.

RISHI RAGOONATH

Gail Alexan­der

Se­nior Po­lit­i­cal Re­porter

Pre­lim­i­nary re­sults re­leased by the Elec­tions and Bound­aries Com­mis­sion (EBC) from Mon­day’s Gen­er­al Elec­tion show the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) se­cur­ing 26 seats, the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) win­ning 13, and the To­ba­go Peo­ple’s Par­ty tak­ing two.

The UNC has, how­ev­er, re­quest­ed re­counts in three con­stituen­cies, which be­gan yes­ter­day.

Mon­day’s vot­er turnout, from the to­tal reg­is­tered elec­torate of 1,153,850, was ap­prox­i­mate­ly 54 per cent.

Guardian Me­dia checks showed this was low­er than in the 2020 Gen­er­al Elec­tion—dur­ing the pan­dem­ic pe­ri­od—when the turnout was 58.08 per cent from an elec­torate of 1,134,136.

The EBC re­leased the re­sults yes­ter­day, con­firm­ing the UNC re­moved the PNM from gov­ern­ment af­ter two terms.

The elec­tion was con­test­ed by 161 can­di­dates rep­re­sent­ing 17 po­lit­i­cal par­ties, plus three in­de­pen­dents.

The EBC stat­ed: “The pre­lim­i­nary tab­u­la­tion and ver­i­fi­ca­tion of re­sults from the par­lia­men­tary elec­tions held on Mon­day, April 28, 2025, have been com­plet­ed. Based on the pre­lim­i­nary count, the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) has emerged as the lead­ing par­ty in the par­lia­men­tary elec­tions, se­cur­ing 26 of the 41 con­stituen­cies. The Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) se­cured 13, and the To­ba­go Peo­ple’s Par­ty se­cured two.”

The to­tal num­ber of bal­lots cast was 617,712.

The UNC, led by Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar (now prime min­is­ter-elect), ob­tained 334,874 votes.

The PNM, led by par­ty po­lit­i­cal leader Dr Kei­th Row­ley and now for­mer prime min­is­ter Stu­art Young, won 220,160.

The TPP, led by To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly Chair­man Far­ley Au­gus­tine, ob­tained 13,857 bal­lots.

The EBC al­so stat­ed the votes for the oth­er par­ties con­test­ing (see chart).

The EBC stat­ed that the UNC has for­mal­ly re­quest­ed gen­er­al re­counts, in­clu­sive of poll cards, in the fol­low­ing con­stituen­cies:

• Arou­ca/Lopinot

• Mal­abar/Mau­si­ca

• San Fer­nan­do East

The Arou­ca/Lopinot seat was won by PNM’s Mar­vin Gon­za­les. The Mal­abar/Mau­si­ca seat was won by Do­minic Ro­maine and the San Fer­nan­do East seat by Bri­an Man­ning. All three re­counts com­menced at 3 pm yes­ter­day.

The EBC added, “These pre­lim­i­nary re­sults are pro­vi­sion­al and re­main sub­ject to fi­nal val­i­da­tion, pend­ing the con­clu­sion of the re­quest­ed re­counts.”

PNM votes drop, UNC in­creas­es each elec­tion since 2015

Guardian Me­dia’s re­search showed that Mon­day’s poll marked the PNM’s lat­est re­duc­tion in votes–and the UNC’s lat­est in­crease–since the 2015 polls.

Ac­cord­ing to the EBC re­port for the 2015 Gen­er­al Elec­tion, the PNM won that elec­tion with 378,729 votes amid a vot­er turnout of 66.8 per cent from an elec­torate of 734,271. The UNC, which lost that elec­tion, ob­tained 290,074 votes.

In the 2020 Gen­er­al Elec­tion, the PNM polled few­er votes–322,180–but still copped the pop­u­lar vote. The UNC in­creased its tal­ly to 309,654.

The to­tal num­ber of bal­lots cast in 2020 was 656,892. Vot­er turnout was 58.08 per cent from an elec­torate of 1,134,136.

But in Mon­day’s elec­tion, with a high­er elec­torate of 1,153,850 and a low­er vot­er turnout of 54 per cent, the PNM lost votes in both Trinidad and To­ba­go across the 41 con­stituen­cies.

How­ev­er, the UNC in­creased its vote count in the 39 seats it con­test­ed in Trinidad on­ly.

The TPP, in To­ba­go, al­so over­pow­ered not on­ly the PNM but al­so the par­ty it was once part of–the Pro­gres­sive De­mo­c­ra­t­ic Pa­tri­ots (PDP)–and best­ed the In­no­v­a­tive De­mo­c­ra­t­ic Al­liance (IDA) and oth­ers con­test­ing in the sis­ter isle.

The re­sults chart­ed by the EBC showed the fol­low­ing num­ber of votes for the 17 par­ties and three peo­ple who con­test­ed Mon­day’s elec­tion:

All Peo­ple’s Par­ty – 718

Class Ac­tion Re­form Move­ment – 22

Con­gress of the Peo­ple – 6,481

The Hyari­ma Move­ment – 24

In­no­v­a­tive De­vel­op­ment Al­liance – 143

Move­ment for Na­tion­al De­vel­op­ment – 560

Na­tion­al Coali­tion for Trans­for­ma­tion – 53

New Na­tion­al Vi­sion – 268

Na­tion­al Trans­for­ma­tion Al­liance – 5,932

Pro­gres­sive De­mo­c­ra­t­ic Pa­tri­ots – 1,443

Pro­gres­sive Em­pow­er­ment Par­ty – 9,379

Pa­tri­ot­ic Front – 21,010

Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment – 220,160

Trinidad Hu­man­i­ty Cam­paign – 105

To­ba­go Peo­ple’s Par­ty – 13,857

Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress – 334,874

Uni­ty of the Peo­ple – 220

E Singh – 47

V John­son – 470

L George – 38

Re­ject­ed bal­lots – 1,908

To­tal – 617,712


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