PNM celebrates Local Government election victory

PNM celebrates Monday night - Express photos

The People’s National Movement (PNM) won a decisive victory in Monday's local election, reversing the humiliation of 2010 when it was soundly defeated 11-3 by the People's Partnership.

Like the UNC, it held on to its base, which gave it a clear victory in seven coporations, with Chaguanas yet to be determined. In that borough the PNM and UNC were tied at 3 seats each and the new Independent Liberal Party of Jack Warner won the other two.

Point Fortin will continue voting Tuesday in two districts because of problems discovered on Monday that caused the vote to be scrapped.

The PNM is likely to get two of the four aldermen in Chaguanas with the other parties having one each, based on the proportional representation model being used for the first time. That would mean that there would have to be some kind of coaltion or compromise to elect a mayor since no party would have a clear majority.

It was a three way race among the PNM, the UNC and COP. The NJAC and MSJ had little impact but in the end it was a test for the two tried and tested parties.

The PNM won all the seats in three corporations: Port of Spain, Arima and Diego Martin and is poised to win Point Fortin as well. It also won a majority in San Fernando where it lost only one of the 12 seats. The other coporations that the party won are San Juan/Laventille, Tunapuna/Piarco and Sangre Grande.

The UNC won five of the 14 corporations but the party saw it as a victory for two reasons. It got the endorsement of its traditional base, winning five of the eight coprporations where it ran candidates. And it was able to keep Jack Warner's ILP out of the picture in the UNC heartland.

The real loss was for the coalition is that the COP went down to defeat by the PNM in Diego Martin, Arima, San Fernando, Tunapuna/Piarco and Sangre Grande. NJAC contested Point Fortin for the partnership.

The real challegne for the UNC was to keep the ILP out of Chaguanas, which it did although the party did not win. However, the two ILP councillors are former UNC and might be tempted to "return home" and give the UNC control of Chaguanas. 

That's a possibility because unlike the Parliament, there is no crossing the floor act that governs the local government corporations.

Warner had hoped that he would capture that borough to keep his strength in Chaguanas. But he was unable to repeat the success he had in the byelection on July 29 when he defeated the UNC.


The official results are yet to be declared but premilinary counts show the PNM received 116,000 votes, the UNC got 84,000 and the ILP 62,000.
That means the ILP lost a substantial amount of support that it claimed to have. The ILP said it had more than one hundred thousand members but the result shows that if that were so, then thousands of members did not vote for the party.


The Congress of the People (COP) suffered a humiliating defeat, losing all the seats it contested in key corporations.


The PNM leader - Keith Rowley - is celebrating his second big win this year after the 12-0 victory in Tobago and he declared on Monday, “We pulled up our flag and the PNM is here to stay, great is the PNM”. 

Rowley added, “We planned our course, we stayed our course and we did not engage in the indecencies of the others. He said he remains confident that the PNM will win again.

The next test is in St Jospeh in another three way race in a bye-election on November 4. On Monday night all three parties summoned their troops to go to St Joseph and bring it home. 

The PNM has won that seat only once in five general elections from 2000 to 2010. It won in 2007 when the votes were split between the UNC and COP.