2020 Trinidad and Tobago general election

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General elections were held in Trinidad and Tobago on 10 August 2020,^[1] to elect 41 members to the 12th Trinidad and Tobago Republican Parliament. It was the 14th election since gaining independence from the United Kingdom in 1962 and the 22nd national election in Trinidad and Tobago. The result was a victory for the incumbent People's National Movement, which received 49.05% of the vote and won 22 of the 41 seats in the House of Representatives.^[2]

Quick facts All 41 seats in the House of Representatives 21 seats needed for a majority, Turnout ...

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10 August 2020

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All 41 seats in the House of Representatives
21 seats needed for a majority

Turnout

58.08% (

8.76 pp)

	First party	Second party

Leader	Keith Rowley	Kamla Persad-Bissessar
Party	PNM	UNC
Last election	51.68%, 23 seats	39.61%, 17 seats
Seats won	22	19
Seat change	1	2
Popular vote	322,180	309,654
Percentage	49.05%	47.14%
Swing	2.63 pp	7.53 pp

Results by constituency

Prime Minister before election

Keith Rowley
PNM

Subsequent Prime Minister

Keith Rowley
PNM

Background

President Paula-Mae Weekes, with the advice of Prime Minister Keith Rowley, dissolved Parliament and issued the writs for the election on 3 July 2020.^[3]

The first-term incumbent People's National Movement (PNM), led by incumbent prime minister Keith Rowley, won 22 seats to form a second five-year term majority government by defeating the opposition United National Congress, led by Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar^[4]^[5]^[6] who finished with 19 seats. The results in six constituencies were subject to recounts, causing the final election results to be delayed by a week.^[7] This is the first parliamentary election in Trinidad and Tobago where the result was not finalized the day after the election.^[8]

Tracy Davidson-Celestine, political leader of the Tobago Council of the People's National Movement (PNM) became the first woman to lead a Tobagonian political party with representation in the House of Representatives. Additionally, two of the three largest parties elected in 2015, the United National Congress (UNC) and the Congress of the People (COP), were led by women.^[9]

Voters elected the 41 members to the House of Representatives by first-past-the-post voting. Rowley and the new cabinet were sworn in on 19 August 2020.^[10]

Electoral system

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.^[11]

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.^[12]

Parties and candidates

Political parties registered with the Elections and Boundaries Commission (EBC) can contest the general election as a party.^[13]

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.^[12]

Prior to the election, the People's National Movement, led by Prime Minister Keith Rowley formed a majority government. The largest opposition party was the United National Congress, led by Kamla Persad-Bissessar. The Congress of the People was the sole other party in Parliament, represented by a single MP.

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.^[14]

On 14 July 2020, the leader of the Patriotic Front, Mickela Panday, announced that her party will no longer be contesting the 2020 elections due to lack of time to prepare for the August 2020 polls.^[15]

The following registered parties are contesting the general election, the People's National Movement is the only party fielding all 41 seats (39 in Trinidad and two in Tobago), 14 parties are contesting seats in Trinidad only and four parties are contesting seats in Tobago only.^[16]

Campaign

Significant differences in the programs of the two major parties UNC and PNM cannot be identified. The UNC is traditionally more of an Indo-Trinidadian party, while Afro–Trinidadians and Tobagonians make up the majority of the PNM's base. In Trinidad, however, racial differences play a subordinate role, the dominant subject areas in the media are the stagnating economy and the high rate of violent crime; here both parties claim that they are better suited to combat them.^[17] In the closing stages of the election campaign, Prime Minister Rowley and citizens accused the UNC of using racist motives in its advertising campaign.^[18]

Some parties only represent regional positions. This applies in particular to the parties PDP and OTV, who are running exclusively in Tobago and advocate for regional interests of the island^[19] and the MND, which advocates the interests of the Diego Martin region.^[20]

The announcement by the opposition UNC that, in the event of an election victory, would build a “dome” over Trinidad to protect against illegal immigrants, made the election campaign relaxed. Before the UNC made it clear that it meant a radar screen, users of social media picked up the topic and indulged in humorous allusions to domes in films and television series.^[21]

As for the Leader of the Opposition, former prime minister and political leader of the UNC Kamla Persad-Bissessar, her latest in a series of losses at the polls which commenced with the January 2013 Tobago House of Assembly election with the wipeout of her People's Partnership -led administration from the Tobago House of Assembly due to a landslide victory by the Tobago Council of the PNM, losses at the 2013 Trinidadian local elections, St. Joseph and Chaguanas West bye-elections, loss in the 2015 Trinidad and Tobago general election, and subsequent losses in local government bye-elections^[22]^[23] has placed pressure on her to offer her resignation before the 2020 United National Congress leadership election.^[24] Additionally, she was threatened with death during the election campaign.^[25]

The resignation of former deputy PNM chairwoman Nafeesa Mohammed on July 28, who accused the PNM leadership of arrogance, ignorance and incompetence, caused a media stir.^[26] Minor parties and bodies called on the President to postpone the election in view of the COVID-19 pandemic, which was also rampant in Trinidad, but their requests were denied.^[27] A UNC supporter was stabbed on the sidelines of a UNC election campaign on the Saturday before the election.^[28]

Trinidad and Tobago

More information Party, Founded ...

Party		Founded	Political position and ideology	Leader(s)	Leader since	Leader's seat	Last election		At dissolution	Contested seats
Party		Founded	Political position and ideology	Leader(s)	Leader since	Leader's seat	% party vote	Seats	At dissolution	Contested seats
Major party not part of any coalition
	PNM	1955	Centre to centre-left Liberalism, Social liberalism, Nationalism	Keith Rowley	May 2010	Diego Martin West	51.69%	23 / 41 (56%)	23 / 41 (56%)	41 seats in Trinidad and Tobago

Trinidad only

More information Party, Founded ...

Party		Founded	Political position and ideology	Leader(s)	Leader since	Leader's seat	Last election		At dissolution	Contested seats
Party		Founded	Political position and ideology	Leader(s)	Leader since	Leader's seat	% party vote	Seats	At dissolution	Contested seats
Major party not part of any coalition
	UNC	1989	Centre-left Social democracy, Civic nationalism	Kamla Persad-Bissessar	January 2010	Siparia	39.60%	17 / 41 (41%)	17 / 41 (41%)	39 seats in Trinidad^[29]
Better United Coalition
	COP	2006	Centre-left Reformism	Carolyn Seepersad-Bachan^[30]	November 2017	None	6.02%	1 / 41 (2%)	1 / 41 (2%)	4 seats in Trinidad
	DPTT	2002		Steve Alvarez^[31]	April 2002	None	–	–	0 / 41 (0%)	1 seat in Trinidad
	TTDF	2019		Nicholas Anthony Williams ^[32]	August 2019^[33]	None	New party		0 / 41 (0%)	1 seat in Trinidad
Not part of any coalition
	PEP	2017		Phillip Alexander^[34]	January 2017	None	New party		0 / 41 (0%)	28 seats in Trinidad
	THC	2015		Marcus Ramkissoon^[35]	July 2015	None	0.02%	0 / 41 (0%)	0 / 41 (0%)	7 seats in Trinidad
	NNV	1994	Social conservatism	Fuad Abu Bakr^[32]	April 2010	None	0.12%	0 / 41 (0%)	0 / 41 (0%)	6 seats in Trinidad
	MSJ	2009	Left-wing Socialism, Labourism, Direct democracy	David Abdulah^[36]	January 2012^[37]	None	–	–	0 / 41 (0%)	5 seats in Trinidad
	MND	2019	Diego Martin regionalism	Garvin Nicholas ^[20]	September 2019	None	New party		0 / 41 (0%)	3 seats in Trinidad
	NCT	2013		Nalini Dial^[38]	July 2013	None	0.05%	0 / 41 (0%)	0 / 41 (0%)	2 seats in Trinidad
	ILP	2013		Rekha Ramjit^[39]	October 2015	None	0.70%	0 / 41 (0%)	0 / 41 (0%)	1 seat in Trinidad
	TNP	2017		Valmiki Ramsingh^[40]	July 2017	None	New party		0 / 41 (0%)	1 seat in Trinidad
	UPP	2018	Right-wing Christian right, Social conservatism	Kenneth Munroe-Brown^[41]	December 2018	None	New party		0 / 41 (0%)	1 seat in Trinidad
	Progressive	2019	Centre to centre-left Progressivism, Decentralization, Localism	Nikoli Edwards^[42]	June 2019	None	New party		0 / 41 (0%)	1 seat in Trinidad
	NOW	2020		Kirk Waithe^[43]	January 2020	None	New party		0 / 41 (0%)	1 seat in Trinidad

Tobago only

More information Party, Founded ...

Party		Founded	Political position and ideology	Leader(s)	Leader since	Leader's seat	Last election		At dissolution	Contested seats
Party		Founded	Political position and ideology	Leader(s)	Leader since	Leader's seat	% party vote	Seats	At dissolution	Contested seats
Not part of any coalition
	PDP	2016	Tobago regionalism	Watson Duke^[19]	July 2016	None	New party		0 / 41 (0%)	2 seats in Tobago
	OTV	2019	Tobago regionalism	Hochoy Charles^[19]	October 2019	None	New party		0 / 41 (0%)	1 seat in Tobago
	UTP	2020	Tobago regionalism	Nickocy Phillips^[44]	July 2020	None	New party		0 / 41 (0%)	1 seat in Tobago

Members of Parliament not standing for re-election

More information Retiring incumbent, Electoral District ...

		Electoral District	Term in office	Date announced
Surujrattan Rambachan	UNC	Tabaquite	2010–2020	14 August 2019^[45]
Fuad Khan	UNC	Barataria/San Juan	1995–2007; 2010–2020	9 November 2019^[46]
Ganga Singh	UNC	Chaguanas West	1995–2007 (Caroni East); 2015–2020	8 March 2020^[47]
Maxie Cuffie	PNM	La Horquetta/Talparo	2015–2020	13 May 2020^[48]
Tim Gopeesingh	UNC	Caroni East	2007–2020	4 June 2020^[49]

Marginal seats

The following lists identify and rank seats by the margin by which the party's candidate finished behind the winning candidate in the 2015 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.

= appears in two lists

More information People's National Movement, Marginal ...

Marginal seats by party (with winning parties and margins from the 2015 Trinidad and Tobago general election)
People's National Movement			People's Partnership (UNC —COP —TOP)
Marginal
1	Moruga/Tableland	2.53%	1	Barataria/San Juan	3.18%
2	St. Joseph	8.33%	2	Chaguanas East	7.95%
3	La Horquetta/Talparo	15.56%	3	Pointe-à-Pierre	8.39%
4	Tunapuna	19.13%	4	Mayaro	14.05%
5	Toco/Sangre Grande	19.20%	5	Cumuto/Manzanilla	15.95%
6	San Fernando West	19.39%	6	Fyzabad	18.92%
7	Point Fortin	20.94%	7	Caroni Central	26.11%
8	Lopinot/Bon Air West	28.10%	8	Tabaquite	31.12%
9	La Brea	33.45%	9	St. Augustine	33.57%
10	D'Abadie/O'Meara	34.20%	10	Couva North	34.17%
11	San Fernando East	37.33%	11	Princes Town	35.60%
12	Arima	40.12%	12	Couva South	38.83%
13	Diego Martin North/East	41.40%	13	Caroni East	44.79%
14	Diego Martin West	55.32%	14	Oropouche West	48.70%
15	St. Ann's East	56.55%	15	Siparia	51.60%
16	Diego Martin Central	59.77%	16	Oropouche East	60.02%
17	Port of Spain South	60.81%	17	Naparima	65.53%
18	Tobago East	60.88%	18	Chaguanas West	76.14%
19	Port of Spain North/St. Ann's West	65.62%
20	Arouca/Maloney	63.10%
21	Tobago West	73.48%
22	Laventille East/Morvant	76.84%
23	Laventille West	81.07%
24	Tobago East	53.78%
25	Tobago West	67.24%
Safe
Source: Parliamentary Elections, 2015 Final Results – Candidates Vote Count^[50]

Campaign slogans

More information Party, Slogan ...

Party		Slogan
	PNM	"The right choice".^{[citation needed]}
	UNC	"Now is the time."^[51]
	COP	"Making the quantum leap".^{[citation needed]}
	DPTT	"The way forward for Trinidad and Tobago."^[52]
	TTDF	"People first."^[33]
	PEP	"Time for real change".^{[citation needed]}
	THC	"Good governance is at your fingertips".^{[citation needed]}
	NNV	"Believe in better".^{[citation needed]}
	MSJ	"Create a balance."^[36]
	MND	"We are from Diego Martin, for Diego Martin".^{[citation needed]}
	NCT	"Think before you ink."^[38]
	ILP	"Performance, Representation, Action".^{[citation needed]}
	TNP	"Change not exchange!"^[40]
	UPP
	Progressive	"Progressive 2020. The new normal".^{[citation needed]} Progressive Party - De Guiding Flame (2020)^[53]
	NOW	"Time is now."^[54]
	PDP	"People before politics".^{[citation needed]}
	OTV	“Tobago must play as a team or lose by the fault.”^[19]
	UTP

Opinion polls

Opinion research in the run-up to the election was carried out by the North American Caribbean Teachers Association (NACTA) and the management consultancy HHB Associates, among others. A NACTA poll shortly after the election date was announced, found that, as in most previous elections, only PNM and UNC would play a role.^[55] An HHB poll published July 25 in the Trinidad and Tobago Guardian found the ruling PNM at 53% and the UNC at 44%.^[56] A NACTA poll from July 25, however, saw the UNC one percentage point ahead.^[57] At this point in time, the tendency, known from previous elections, was that Trinidadians with African roots tend to choose the PNM and Trinidadians with Indian roots rather the UNC.