2025 Trinidad and Tobago general election
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All 41 seats in the House of Representatives 21 seats needed for a majority | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The 2025 Trinidad and Tobago general election will be held no later than November 28, 2025 to elect all 41 members of the House of Representatives. It will be the 100th anniversary of general elections in Trinidad and Tobago, the first having taken place in 1925. The Elections and Boundaries Commission (EBC) March 13, 2024 report on the review of constituency boundaries saw the renaming of five constituencies from this general election with Arouca/Maloney becoming Trincity/Maloney, D'Abadie/O'Meara renamed Malabar/Mausica, Lopinot/Bon Air West changed to Arouca/Lopinot, St Joseph becoming Aranguez/St Joseph, and Pointe-a-Pierre renamed Claxton Bay and the report also suggesting the maintaining of the current number of constituencies, with 39 seats in Trinidad and two in Tobago.[1][2][3] No by-election was held after Lisa Morris-Julian, Minister in the Ministry of Education and MP for D'Abadie/O'Meara, who was reselected by the PNM as the candidate for the renamed Malabar/Mausica seat on 3 December 2024 died in a house fire with two of her children on 16 December 2024.[4][5]
Electoral system
[edit]The 41 members of the House of Representatives are elected by first-past-the-post voting in single-member constituencies. Registered voters must be 18 years and over, must reside in an electoral district/constituency for at least two months prior to the qualifying date, be a citizen of Trinidad and Tobago or a Commonwealth citizen residing legally in Trinidad and Tobago for a period of at least one year.
If one party obtains a majority of seats, then that party is entitled to form the Government, with its leader as Prime Minister. If the election results in no single party having a majority, then there is a hung parliament. In this case, the options for forming the Government are either a minority government or a coalition government.[6]
Parties
[edit]Political parties registered with the Elections and Boundaries Commission (EBC) can contest the general election as a party.[7]
The leader of the party commanding a majority of support in the House of Representatives is the person who is called on by the president to form a government as Prime Minister, while the leader of the largest party or coalition not in government becomes the Leader of the Opposition.[8]
The People's National Movement and the United National Congress have been the two biggest parties, in addition to having supplied every prime minister since 1991.[9]
The following registered parties are contesting the general election. 11 parties have expressed interest in contesting the election.[10]
Trinidad and Tobago
[edit]| Party | Founded | Political position and ideology | Leader | Leader since | Leader's seat | Last election | Current seats | Seats contesting | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| % party vote | Seats | |||||||||
| Major party not part of any coalition | ||||||||||
| PNM | 1955 | Centre to centre-left Liberalism, Social liberalism, Nationalism |
Stuart Young | January 2025 | Port-of-Spain North/St. Ann's West | 22 / 41 (54%) |
21 / 41 (51%)
|
41 seats in Trinidad and Tobago | ||
| Not part of any alliance | ||||||||||
| PF | 2019 | Centre-left | Mickela Panday | May 2019 | None | – | – | – | 41 seats in Trinidad and Tobago[11] | |
Trinidad only
[edit]| Party | Founded | Political position and ideology | Leader(s) | Leader since | Leader's seat | Last election | Current seats | Seats contesting | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| % party vote | Seats | |||||||||
| UNC–PEP–MND alliance | ||||||||||
| UNC | 1989 | Kamla Persad-Bissessar | January 2010 | Siparia | 19 / 41 (46%) |
19 / 41 (46%) |
31 seats in Trinidad | |||
| PEP | 2017 | Phillip Alexander[12] | January 2017 | None | 0 / 41 (0%)
|
0 / 41 (0%)
|
8 seats in Trinidad | |||
| MND | 2019 | Diego Martin regionalism | Garvin Nicholas [13] | September 2019 | None | 0 / 41 (0%)
|
0 / 41 (0%)
|
0 seats in Trinidad | ||
| NTA-COP-HOPE alliance | ||||||||||
| NTA | 2022 | Social liberalism | Gary Griffith | April 2022 | None | New party | 0 / 41 (0%)
|
13 seats in Trinidad | ||
| COP | 2006 | Centre-left Reformism |
Prakash Ramadhar | January 2025 | None | 0 / 41 (0%) |
0 / 41 (0%) |
10 seats in Trinidad | ||
| Honesty, Opportunity, Performance and Empowerment (HOPE) | 2021 | Timothy Hamel-Smith | November 2021 | None | New party | 0 / 41 (0%)
|
5 seats in Trinidad | |||
| Not part of any alliance | ||||||||||
| NNV | 1994 | Social conservatism | Fuad Abu Bakr[14] | April 2010 | None | 0 / 41 (0%)
|
0 / 41 (0%)
|
TBA | ||
| All People's Party (Trinidad and Tobago) (APP) | 2024 | Centre-left | Kezel Jackson | July 2024 | None | New party | 0 / 41 (0%)
|
TBA | ||
Tobago only
[edit]| Party | Founded | Political position and ideology | Leader(s) | Leader since | Leader's seat | Last election | Current seats | Seats contesting | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| % party vote | Seats | |||||||||
| Not part of any coalition | ||||||||||
| TPP | 2023 | Tobago regionalism | Farley Chavez Augustine | August 2023 | None | New party | 0 / 41 (0%) |
2 seats in Tobago | ||
| PDP | 2016 | Tobago regionalism | Watson Duke[15] | July 2016 | None | 0 / 41 (0%) |
0 / 41 (0%) |
2 seats in Tobago | ||
Campaign
[edit]Marginal seats
[edit]The following lists identify and rank seats by the margin by which the party's candidate finished behind the winning candidate in the 2020 election.
For information purposes only, seats that have changed hands through subsequent by elections have been noted. Seats whose members have changed party allegiance are ignored.
| People's National Movement | United National Congress | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Marginal | |||||||
| 1 | St. Joseph (renamed Aranguez/St Joseph) | 4.5% | 1 | Moruga/Tableland | 5.3% | ||
| 2 | Tobago East | 9.7% | 2 | Chaguanas East | 6.4% | ||
| 3 | La Horquetta/Talparo | 10.9% | 3 | Barataria/San Juan | 6.7% | ||
| 4 | San Fernando West | 10.9% | 4 | Pointe-à-Pierre (renamed Claxton Bay) | 9.1% | ||
| 5 | Tunapuna | 11.2% | 5 | Cumuto/Manzanilla | 17.9% | ||
| 6 | Toco/Sangre Grande | 18.7% | 6 | Mayaro | 18.7% | ||
| 7 | Point Fortin | 22.4% | 7 | Fyzabad | 22.0% | ||
| 8 | La Brea | 23.3% | 8 | Caroni Central | 24.7% | ||
| 9 | Lopinot/Bon Air West (renamed Arouca/Lopinot) | 33.8% | 9 | Tabaquite | 36.9% | ||
| 10 | Tobago West | 34.1% | 10 | St. Augustine | 37.8% | ||
| 11 | D'Abadie/O'Meara (renamed Malabar/Mausica) | 34.2% | 11 | Couva South | 38.7% | ||
| 12 | San Fernando East | 35.6% | 12 | Princes Town | 40.6% | ||
| 13 | Arima | 40.0% | 13 | Couva North | 40.7% | ||
| 14 | St. Ann's East | 51.1% | 14 | Caroni East | 49.2% | ||
| 15 | Diego Martin North/East | 53.3% | 15 | Oropouche West | 50.5% | ||
| 16 | Diego Martin Central | 55.7% | 16 | Siparia | 55.5% | ||
| 17 | Diego Martin West | 59.1% | 17 | Oropouche East | 60.2% | ||
| 18 | Port of Spain South | 60.7% | 18 | Naparima | 66.4% | ||
| 19 | Arouca/Maloney (renamed Trincity/Maloney) | 64.2% | 19 | Chaguanas West | 78.2% | ||
| 20 | Port of Spain North/St. Ann's West | 66.8% | Safe | ||||
| 21 | Laventille East/Morvant | 67.0% | |||||
| 22 | Laventille West | 71.6% | |||||
| Safe | |||||||
| Source: Parliamentary Elections, 2020 Final Results – Candidates Vote Count[16] | |||||||
Opinion polls
[edit]The North American Caribbean Teachers Association (NACTA) based in New York (led by political analyst Vishnu Bisram), pollster Nigel Henry's Solution by Simulation and pollster Louis Bertrand's H.H.B (H.H.B) & Associates have commissioned opinion polling for the next general election sampling the electorates' opinions.
Graphical summary
[edit] | Graphs are unavailable due to technical issues. Updates on reimplementing the Graph extension, which will be known as the Chart extension, can be found on Phabricator and on MediaWiki.org. |
| Graphs are unavailable due to technical issues. Updates on reimplementing the Graph extension, which will be known as the Chart extension, can be found on Phabricator and on MediaWiki.org. |
| Graphs are unavailable due to technical issues. Updates on reimplementing the Graph extension, which will be known as the Chart extension, can be found on Phabricator and on MediaWiki.org. |
Seat projections
[edit]| Date | Pollster | Sample size | PNM | UNC | Other | Legislative majority |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 Jan 2025 | Prime Minister Keith Rowley announces his intention to resign as Prime Minister and MP for Diego Martin West.[17] | |||||
| 16 December 2024 | Lisa Morris-Julian, the MP for D'Abadie/O'Meara and the 2025 PNM prospective candidate for Malabar/Mausica (the new name for the D'Abadie/O'Meara constituency from the 2025 general election), along with two of her children, die in a fire.[18] | |||||
| 9 Sep 2024 | NACTA/Newday[19] | 490 | 25 | 16 | 0 | 5 |
| Five dissident UNC MPs reshuffled in the House of Representatives[20][21] | ||||||
| 2024 Local Government By-Elections: PNM wins Lengua/Indian Walk, breaking the 2023 Trinidadian local election tie with the UNC for the seat and number of councillors elected islandwide, UNC retains control of Quinam/Morne Diablo | ||||||
| 2024 United National Congress internal election: Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar retains leadership of the UNC with 76.47% of the vote. | ||||||
| PNM ties in number of councillors and corporations won with the UNC in the 2023 Trinidadian local elections | ||||||
| The Tobago People's Party is formed comprising all ex-PDP Tobago House of Assembly members, besides PDP leader Watson Duke, leaving Duke as the sole PDP member of the THA | ||||||
| UNC and NTA form an alliance to contest the 2023 Trinidadian local elections[22] | ||||||
| 2023 Trinidad and Tobago presidential election; Christine Kangaloo is elected president, succeeding Paula-Mae Weekes | ||||||
| 2022 People's National Movement leadership election: Prime Minister Keith Rowley retains leadership of the PNM with 92.46% of the vote. | ||||||
| 2022 Tobago Council of the PNM election; Ancil Dennis succeeds Tracy Davidson-Celestine as PNM Tobago leader | ||||||
| January 2021 Tobago House of Assembly election: PDP wins a historic landslide victory, ending 21 consecutive years of PNM rule, Farley Chavez Augustine replaces Ancil Dennis as Chief Secretary of Tobago | ||||||
| UNC motion to impeach President Paula-Mae Weekes fails[23] | ||||||
| PNM and PDP win an equal number of seats in the January 2021 Tobago House of Assembly election | ||||||
| 10 Aug 2020 | 2020 general election | 22 | 19 | 0 | 3 | |
Candidates by constituency
[edit]The Elections and Boundaries Commission (EBC) report of 13 March 2024 on constituency boundary reviews resulted in the renaming of five constituencies: Arouca/Maloney became Trincity/Maloney, D'Abadie/O'Meara became Malabar/Mausica, Lopinot/Bon Air West became Arouca/Lopinot, St Joseph became Aranguez/St Joseph, and Pointe-à-Pierre became Claxton Bay. The report also recommended maintaining the current total of 41 constituencies, with 39 seats in Trinidad and two in Tobago. Minister in the Ministry of Education and Member of Parliament for D'Abadie/O'Meara renamed Malabar/Mausica from this election, Lisa Morris-Julian was re-selected by the PNM as the candidate for the seat on 3 December 2024, but died in a house fire along with two of her children, on 16 December 2024. Non-minister MPs who are not standing for re-election are marked (†) Government ministers are in bold, prime ministerial candidates and party leaders are in italics.
Notes
[edit]- ^ Young was unanimously endorsed by PNM MPs as the PNM's Prime Ministerial candidate on 11 January 2025, but Keith Rowley is party leader.
References
[edit]- ^ "EBC renames 5 constituencies". www.guardian.co.tt. Retrieved 2025-02-02.
- ^ "New names for 5 constituencies". Trinidad Express Newspapers. 2024-12-10. Retrieved 2025-02-02.
- ^ Douglas, Sean (2024-04-13). "EBC renames 5 constituencies, changes boundaries of 16". Trinidad and Tobago Newsday. Retrieved 2025-02-02.
- ^ "MP's seat remains vacant until general election called". www.guardian.co.tt. Retrieved 2025-02-02.
- ^ Tack, Clint Chan (2024-12-17). "Political scientist: Morris-Julian's death won't trigger by-election". Trinidad and Tobago Newsday. Retrieved 2025-02-02.
- ^ "Trinidad and Tobago Parliament". Trinidad and Tobago Parliament. Retrieved 2021-08-09.
- ^ "Assigning Political Party Symbols". Trinidad and Tobago Elections And Boundaries Commission. Archived from the original on 5 September 2020. Retrieved 21 August 2020.
- ^ "Glossary of Parliamentary Terms". Trinidad and Tobago Parliament. Archived from the original on 31 January 2020. Retrieved 20 August 2020.
- ^ Hunte, Camille (4 August 2020). "Who will lead us out of the pandemic?". Trinidad Express Newspapers. Archived from the original on 6 August 2020. Retrieved 20 August 2020.
- ^ "Over 160 candidates expected to contest seats in next general election". www.guardian.co.tt. Retrieved 2025-02-01.
- ^ "Over 160 candidates expected to contest seats in next general election". www.guardian.co.tt. Retrieved 2025-02-02.
- ^ Fraser, Narissa (12 August 2020). "Phillip Alexander tells EBC: Hold fresh election". Trinidad and Tobago Newsday. Archived from the original on 17 August 2020. Retrieved 21 August 2020.
- ^ Bridglal, Carla (2 September 2019). "Garvin Nicholas brings back MND". Trinidad and Tobago Newsday. Archived from the original on 14 September 2019. Retrieved 21 August 2020.
- ^ Neaves, Julien (23 July 2020). "Better United partner decides better apart". Trinidad and Tobago Newsday. Archived from the original on 17 August 2020. Retrieved 21 August 2020.
- ^ McEachnie, Camille (26 July 2020). "Battle of the flyers on Tobago campaign trail". CNC3. Archived from the original on 5 September 2020. Retrieved 21 August 2020.
- ^ "Report of the Elections and Boundaries Commission on the Parliamentary Elections held on Monday August 10th, 2020 | Elections And Boundaries Commission". ebctt.com. Retrieved 2025-01-28.
- ^ "Rowley's retirement bombshell: President will have to appoint new PM". Trinidad Express Newspapers. 2025-01-04. Retrieved 2025-01-05.
- ^ "MP's seat remains vacant until general election called". Trinidad & Tobago Guardian. Retrieved 2025-01-05.
- ^ Tack, Clint Chan (2024-09-10). "NACTA: PNM holds early advantage ahead of election". Trinidad and Tobago Newsday. Retrieved 2024-09-26.
- ^ "UNC dissidents shuffled in House". Trinidad & Tobago Guardian. Retrieved 2024-09-27.
- ^ Ramdass, Anna (2024-09-09). "UNC dissidents have been 'politically distanced'". Trinidad Express Newspapers. Retrieved 2024-09-27.
- ^ "UNC-NTA alliance can give PNM edge". CNC3. 2023-06-28. Retrieved 2024-09-27.
- ^ Singh, Renu-ka. "Motion to remove President fails". Trinidad & Tobago Guardian. Retrieved 2024-09-27.
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