PNM seeks recounts in two seats as EBC confirms TPP clean sweep

Gail Alexan­der

Se­nior Po­lit­i­cal Re­porter

Re­counts re­quest­ed by the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) be­gan yes­ter­day in the Dar­rel Spring/Whim and Scar­bor­ough/Mt Grace elec­toral dis­tricts fol­low­ing Mon­day’s To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly (THA) elec­tions, which the Elec­tions and Bound­aries Com­mis­sion (EBC) says was won by the To­ba­go Peo­ple’s Par­ty (TPP).

Ac­cord­ing to pre­lim­i­nary re­sults re­leased by the EBC yes­ter­day, the TPP won all 15 THA seats with 16,240 votes, while the PNM se­cured 10,456 votes.

The EBC is­sued an up­date around 12.30 pm yes­ter­day fol­low­ing Mon­day’s poll, in which the TPP, led by Far­ley Au­gus­tine, se­cured a re­sound­ing 15–nil vic­to­ry — wide­ly de­scribed as a “blue wash” of To­ba­go’s po­lit­i­cal land­scape.

In its state­ment, the EBC said the pre­lim­i­nary tab­u­la­tion and ver­i­fi­ca­tion of re­sults had been com­plet­ed in ac­cor­dance with es­tab­lished elec­toral pro­ce­dures.

Of the to­tal reg­is­tered elec­torate of 53,239 vot­ers across To­ba­go’s 15 elec­toral dis­tricts, vot­er turnout was record­ed at ap­prox­i­mate­ly 50.69 per cent.

The dis­tri­b­u­tion of votes re­ceived by the po­lit­i­cal par­ties was as fol­lows:

To­ba­go Peo­ple’s Par­ty (TPP): 16,240

Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM): 10,456

In­no­v­a­tive De­mo­c­ra­t­ic Al­liance (IDA): 181

Uni­ty of the Peo­ple (UOP): 8

To­tal valid votes amount­ed to 26,885, with 104 bal­lots re­ject­ed.

A to­tal of 42 can­di­dates from four po­lit­i­cal par­ties con­test­ed the elec­tions.

“Based on the pre­lim­i­nary count, the To­ba­go Peo­ple’s Par­ty (TPP) has won all 15 elec­toral dis­tricts,” the EBC stat­ed.

It added that the PNM for­mal­ly re­quest­ed re­counts in the Dar­rel Spring/Whim and Scar­bor­ough/Mt Grace dis­tricts.

The re­counts were sched­uled to com­mence at 3 pm yes­ter­day and were ex­pect­ed to con­tin­ue in­to late last night.

The Com­mis­sion em­pha­sised that the re­sults re­main pre­lim­i­nary and pro­vi­sion­al, pend­ing the com­ple­tion of the re­counts and the fi­nal val­i­da­tion process.

In Dar­rel Spring/Whim, the re­count in­volves PNM can­di­date Kelvon Mor­ris, who won the seat in the 2021 THA elec­tions but lost on Mon­day by 17 votes to TPP can­di­date Ricky Joe­field. IDA can­di­date El­don Berkley al­so con­test­ed the seat.

The re­count in the Scar­bor­ough/Mt Grace dis­trict in­volves PNM can­di­date Petal Benoit, TPP can­di­date Trevor James and IDA can­di­date Denise Tsoiafatt-An­gus.

Mon­day’s vot­er turnout and the votes se­cured by the TPP and PNM will be com­pared with cor­re­spond­ing fig­ures from the 2021 THA elec­tion.

Guardian Me­dia checks of the 2021 records con­firmed that five par­ties con­test­ed that elec­tion: the Pro­gres­sive De­mo­c­ra­t­ic Pa­tri­ots (PDP), PNM, IDA, Uni­ty of the Peo­ple and the Class Ac­tion Re­form Move­ment (CARM).

The PDP, led by Wat­son Duke, with Au­gus­tine then serv­ing as deputy leader, won 14 of the 15 THA seats with 16,932 votes. The PNM, which won on­ly the Dar­rel Spring/Whim seat, ob­tained 11,941 votes while con­test­ing all 15 seats.

The IDA se­cured 295 votes, the UOP re­ceived six votes and CARM record­ed one vote.

The reg­is­tered elec­torate in 2021 was 51,383, with vot­er turnout at 56.97 per cent on elec­tion day.

The PNM’s To­ba­go Coun­cil al­so is­sued a state­ment yes­ter­day ex­tend­ing con­grat­u­la­tions to the TPP and pledg­ing com­mit­ment to THA gov­er­nance.

“The elec­toral process has con­clud­ed, and the peo­ple of To­ba­go have ex­er­cised their de­mo­c­ra­t­ic right with­in the frame­work of the To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly,” the Coun­cil said. “The PNM re­spects the out­come and ac­knowl­edges the man­date now giv­en to the in­com­ing ad­min­is­tra­tion to lead the af­fairs of the THA.

“At this junc­ture, To­ba­go’s ad­vance­ment must tran­scend po­lit­i­cal lines. The PNM be­lieves that the work of the THA should al­ways be guid­ed by the col­lec­tive in­ter­est of the is­land’s ur­ban and rur­al com­mu­ni­ties alike — youth and se­niors, en­tre­pre­neurs, work­ers and civ­il so­ci­ety.

“On be­half of the PNM and in the in­ter­est of all To­bag­o­ni­ans, we wish the in­com­ing Chief Sec­re­tary, Ex­ec­u­tive Coun­cil and As­sem­bly mem­bers wis­dom, sta­bil­i­ty and suc­cess as they car­ry out their du­ties. Lead­er­ship with­in the THA is both a priv­i­lege and a solemn re­spon­si­bil­i­ty — one that calls for in­clu­siv­i­ty, ac­count­abil­i­ty and re­spect for dif­fer­ing per­spec­tives.”

The PNM To­ba­go Coun­cil said it re­mains com­mit­ted to sup­port­ing de­mo­c­ra­t­ic in­sti­tu­tions, con­struc­tive en­gage­ment and the con­tin­ued de­vel­op­ment of To­ba­go.

“Our shared ob­jec­tive must al­ways be a strong, re­silient and pros­per­ous To­ba­go, gov­erned in the best in­ter­est of its peo­ple. We wish the To­ba­go Peo­ple’s Par­ty every suc­cess in ful­fill­ing the man­date en­trust­ed to them through the To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly,” the Coun­cil added.

To­ba­go vot­er turnout trends

Here are the vot­er turnout fig­ures for the last five To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly (THA) elec­tions (cov­er­ing elec­tions with avail­able turnout da­ta)

Jan­u­ary 12, 2026 THA elec­tion

• Vot­er turnout was ~50.69 per cent of the 53,239 elec­torate.

De­cem­ber 6, 2021 THA elec­tion

• Vot­er turnout was 58.04 per cent.

Jan­u­ary 25, 2021 THA elec­tion

• Vot­er turnout was 51.84 per cent.

Jan­u­ary 23, 2017 THA elec­tion

• Vot­er turnout was 50.20 per cent.

Jan­u­ary 21, 2013 THA elec­tion

• Vot­er turnout was 70.08 per cent.

For ad­di­tion­al con­text, ear­li­er elec­tions in­clude:

Jan­u­ary 19, 2009 THA elec­tion: 56.39 per cent turnout.

Jan­u­ary 17, 2005 THA elec­tion: 54.43 per cent turnout.

Jan­u­ary 29, 2001 THA elec­tion: 60.13 per cent turnout.