2015 Trinidad and Tobago general election

Trinidad and Tobago general election, 2015

7 September 2015 (2015-09-07)
All 41 seats to the House of Representatives
First party Second party Third party   Leader Keith Rowley Kamla Persad-Bissessar Jack Warner Party PNM People's Partnership Independent Liberal Party Leader since 2010 2013 Leader's seat Diego Martin West Siparia Chaguanas East Last election 12 seats, 29.27% (UNC) 21 (COP) 6 (TOP) 2 Did not contest Seats before 13 (+1 via 2013 By-election) 27 1 (2013 By-election) Seats won 23 (UNC) 17 (COP) 1 (TOP) 0 0 Seat change 11 (UNC) 4 (COP) 5 (TOP) 2
Prime Minister before election Kamla Persad-Bissessar People's Partnership Subsequent Prime Minister Keith Rowley People's National Movement

General elections were held in Trinidad and Tobago on 7 September 2015. The date of the general elections was announced by Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar on 13 June 2015. The result was a victory for the opposition People's National Movement, which won 23 of the 41 seats in the House of Representatives and the popular vote with 51.68% of ballots cast.

Background

The 2010 general elections were won by the People's Partnership (PP) coalition, an alliance of the United National Congress (UNC), the National Joint Action Committee (NJAC), the Congress of the People (COP) and the Tobago Organisation of the People (TOP). The PP took 29 of the 41 seats, with the People's National Movement (PNM) winning the other 12. Prior to the 2015 general elections, two by-elections were held in St Joseph and Chaguanas West, which saw the seats held by the PP won by the PNM and Independent Liberal Party (ILP) respectively.

Electoral system

The 41 elected members of the House of Representatives were elected in single-member constituencies using first-past-the-post. A total of 2,199 polling stations were used.

Campaign

A total of 127 candidates contested the election for 17 different political parties, with another five running a independents.representing 17 different political parties and independent candidates. The PNM was the only party to contest all 41 seats, and only two other parties contested more than half the seats; the United National Congress ran in 28 and the ILP in 26.

The COP ran in eight seats, the Laventille Outreach for Vertical Enrichment, the NJAC, New National Vision and Trinidad Humanity Campaign all contested three seats, whilst Tobago Forwards, the TOP and the Platform of Truth ran in two. The other parties only nominated a single candidate, including the Democratic Development Party, the Independent Democratic Party, the National Coalition for Transportation, the New Voice, the Youth Empowerment Party and the Youth, National Organisations, Farmers Unification, Policy Reformation.

The UNC, NJAC, COP and TOP again ran under the PP banner, and did not run candidates against each other.

Results

By party

Party	Votes	%	Seats	+/–
People's National Movement	378,447	51.68%	23	+11
People's Partnership	341,587	46.4%	18	–4
Independent Liberal Party	5,123	0.70%	0	0
Independents	2,376	0.32%	0	0
Tobago Forwards	2,162	0.30%	0	New
Tobago Organisation of the People	1,750	0.24%	0	–2
New National Vision	883	0.12%	0	0
Platform of Truth	469	0.06%	0	New
Laventille Outreach for Vertical Enrichment	334	0.05%	0	New
National Coalition for Transportation	331	0.05%	0	New
Democratic Development Party	153	0.02%	0	New
Trinidad Humanity Campaign	138	0.02%	0	New
Independent Democratic Party	108	0.01%	0	New
The New Voice	101	0.01%	0	New
Youth, National Organisations, Farmers Unification, Policy Reformation	74	0.01%	0	New
Youth Empowerment Party	34	0.00%	0	New
Total valid votes	732,340	100%	41
Invalid votes	2,452
Total votes	734,792
Registered voters (turnout 66.84%)	1,099,279
Source: Trinidad Express EBC

By constituency

Winning candidates are in bold font.

Constituency	PP	PNM	ILP	Others
Arima	Rodger Samuel (COP)	Anthony Garcia	Donna Jennings
Arouca/Maloney	Wendell Eversley(COP)	Camille Robinson Regis
Barataria/San Juan	Fuad Khan (UNC)	Hafeez Ali		Jonathan Thomas (YEP)
Caroni Central	Dr Bhoe Tewarie (UNC)	Avinash Singh	Michelle Johnson
Caroni East	Tim Gopeesingh (UNC)	Sara Budhu	Abuzar Mohammed
Chaguanas East	Fazal Karim (UNC)	Parbatee Helen Maharaj	Jack Warner
Chaguanas West	Ganga Singh (UNC)	Abbgail Nandalal	Amarath Jagassar
Couva North	Ramona Ramdial (UNC)	Richard Ragoonannan	Sunil Ramjitsingh
Couva South	Rudy Indarsingh (UNC)	Alif Mohammed	Kelly Dingoor
Cumuto/Manzanilla	Christene Newallo Hosein (UNC)	Bharath Barry Lochan	Dr Lena Brereton	Krish Poonwasee (Independent)
D'Abadie/O’Meara	Patricia Metivier (COP)	Ancil Antoine	Dominic Romain
Diego Martin Central	Embau Moheni(NJAC)	Darryl Smith	Kathy Ann Lamont
Diego Martin North/East	Garvin Nicholas (UNC)	Colm Imbert		Saaleha Abu Bakr (NNV)
Diego Martin West	Avonelle Hector (COP)	Dr Keith Rowley	Taja Carringhton	Faud Abu Bakr (NNV) Phillip Alexander (Independent) Zafir David (THC)
Fyzabad	Dr Lakram Bodoe (UNC)	Marsha Bailey	Fabian Anthony Assie
La Brea	Ramesh Ramnannan (UNC)	Nicole Olivirrie	Kefing Jason Chance
La Horquetta/Talparo	Jairam Seemungal (UNC)	Maxie Cuffie
Laventille East/Morvant	Kathy Ann Francis (NJAC)	Adrian Leonce	Fitzdavid Samuel	Niya Pierre (LOVE)
Laventille West	Malcolm Kernahan (NJAC)	Fitzgerald Hinds	Trent Holdip
Lopinot/Bon Air West	Lincoln Douglas (COP)	Cherrie Ann Chritchlow Cockburn	Nigel Reyes
Mayaro	Rushton Paray (UNC)	Clerance Rambharat	Andrew Brooks
Moruga/Tableland	Clifton De Coteau (UNC)	Dr Lovell Francis	Andre Clifford
Naparima	Rodney Charles (UNC)	Dons Waithe	Riza hosein
Oropouche East	Roodal Moonilal (UNC)	Terry Jadoonannan
Oropouche West	Vidia Goopiesingh (UNC)	Clifford Rambharose
Point Fortin	Ravi ratiram (UNC)	Edmund Dillion
Pointe-à-Pierre	Dr David Lee (UNC)	Neil Mohammed	Patrina Mark Bascombe
Port of Spain North/St Ann's West	Eli Zakour (UNC)	Stuart Young
Port of Spain South	Cleveland Garcia (COP)	Marlene McDonald
Princes Town	Barry Padarath (UNC)	Nikoleiskai Ali
San Fernando East	Ashaki Scott (COP)	Randall Mitchell	Ricardo Lee Sing
San Fernando West	Raziah Ahmed (UNC)	Faris Al Rawi	Joseph Mendes
Siparia	Kamla Persad-Bissessar (UNC)	Vidya Deokiesingh
St Ann's East	Don Sylverter (UNC)	Dr Nyan Gadsby Dolly	Geewan Ramdeen
St Augustine	Prakash Ramadhar (COP)	Alisha Romano
St Joseph	Vasant Bharath (UNC)	Terrence Deyalsingh		Errol Fabien (Independent)
Tabaquite	Suruj Rambachan (UNC)	Kevin Chan
Tobago East	Joseph Fredrick (TOP)	Ayanna Webster Roy		Juliana Henry-King (TPT) Peter Caruth (TF)
Tobago West	Natasha Ann Second (TOP)	Shamfa Cudjoe	Paul Peters	Hochoy Charles (TPT) Christlyn Moore (TF)
Toco/Sangre Grande	Brent Sancho (UNC)	Glenda Jennings Smith	Dayne Francois
Tunapuna	Wayne Munroe (UNC)	Esmonde Forde		Marcus Ramkissoon (THC)