Boundary shifts in Tobago

Gail Alexan­der

Se­nior Po­lit­i­cal Re­porter

There will be a big­ger elec­torate and changes in two seats for To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly polls.

The to­tal To­ba­go elec­torate at Ju­ly 7, 2025, was 52,857 ac­cord­ing to the Elec­tions and Bound­aries Com­mis­sion (EBC), which has rec­om­mend­ed al­ter­ing the Ma­son Hall/Mo­ri­ah and Bagatelle/Ba­co­let bound­aries—and re­nam­ing both dis­tricts.

But the names and bound­aries of To­ba­go’s 13 oth­er elec­toral dis­tricts re­main un­changed.

The in­for­ma­tion is con­tained in the EBC’s 14th re­port that was laid in the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives yes­ter­day by Rur­al De­vel­op­ment and Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment Min­is­ter Kadi­jah Ameen. It was dat­ed Au­gust 29, 2025.

The EBC’s re­port pro­vides the ba­sis of the nec­es­sary draft or­der for the Jan­u­ary 12, 2026, THA polls.

The elec­tion date was an­nounced on Mon­day by THA Chief Sec­re­tary Far­ley Au­gus­tine.

The EBC rec­om­mend­ed that the names and bound­aries of the fol­low­ing 13 elec­toral dis­tricts re­main un­changed:

a. Belle Gar­den/Glam­or­gan

b. Bethel/New Grange

c. Bethes­da/Les Coteaux

d. Bon Ac­cord/Crown Point

e. Buc­coo/Mt. Pleas­ant

f. Dar­rel Spring/Whim

g. Lam­beau/Low­lands

h. Mt St George/Good­wood

i. ↓Par­latu­vi­er/L’anse Four­mi/Spey­side

j. Ply­mouth/Black Rock

k. Rox­bor­ough/Ar­gyle

l. Scar­bor­ough/Mt Grace

m. Sig­nal Hill/Pa­tience Hill

But the EBC rec­om­mend­ed the al­ter­ation of the bound­aries of two dis­tricts, with the trans­fer of Polling Di­vi­sion 4,984 from Ma­son Hall/Mo­ri­ah to Bagatelle/Ba­co­let.

The EBC al­so rec­om­mend­ed that Ma­son Hall/Mo­ri­ah be re­named Ma­son Hall North/Mo­ri­ah.

Bagatelle/Ba­co­let will be re­named Ma­son Hall South/Bagatelle.

The EBC’s re­port stat­ed that analy­sis and rec­om­mend­ed ad­just­ments were guid­ed by the dis­tri­b­u­tion of the elec­torate among ex­ist­ing dis­tricts as of Ju­ly 7th, 2025.

The last THA poll was in 2021.

The com­mis­sion com­pared the ex­ist­ing elec­torate of Ju­ly 7th, 2021 - which was 51,216 - with the 52,857 elec­torate at Ju­ly 7th, 2025.

The com­par­i­son re­vealed an in­crease of 1,641 elec­tors; equiv­a­lent to ap­prox­i­mate­ly 3.2% over the for­mer to­tal.

The re­port not­ed the EBC’s rules, in­clud­ing that in no case shall the num­ber of elec­tors in any one elec­toral dis­trict of an elec­toral area ex­ceed or be less than the num­ber of elec­tors in any oth­er elec­toral dis­trict of that elec­toral area by more than 25 per cent.

Al­so, the EBC not­ed that where it con­sid­ers ap­pro­pri­ate, the names of elec­toral dis­tricts are re­viewed to more prop­er­ly re­flect the ge­o­graph­i­cal ar­eas en­com­passed.

With the in­crease of the elec­torate in the 14 dis­tricts ris­ing from 51,216 in 2021 to 52,857 this year, the EBC found the fol­low­ing:

• ↓The high­est elec­torate is 4,203 (Ma­son Hall/Mo­ri­ah)

• ↓The low­est elec­torate is 3,129 (Bagatelle/Ba­co­let)

• ↓The high­est elec­torate ex­ceeds the low­est by 34.32 per cent.

• ↓The low­est elec­torate is 25.55 per cent be­low the high­est elec­torate

• ↓25 per cent be­low the high­est elec­torate is equal to 3,152; and 25 per cent above the low­est elec­torate is equal to 3,911.

The EBC stat­ed that the cur­rent elec­torate of Ma­son Hall/Mo­ri­ah ex­ceeds Bagatelle/Ba­co­let by 34.32 per cent and the elec­toral dis­trict of Bagatelle/Ba­co­let is 25.55 per cent be­low Ma­son Hall/Mo­ri­ah. It not­ed that this does not con­form to its gov­ern­ing law.

“Con­se­quent­ly, the com­mis­sion con­sid­ers that ad­just­ments are nec­es­sary to the ex­ist­ing bound­aries of the elec­toral dis­tricts,” the EBC added.

Ma­son Hall/Mo­ri­ah had an elec­torate of 4,203 and eight polling di­vi­sions pri­or to ad­just­ment.

The trans­fer of Polling Di­vi­sion 4,948 from Ma­son Hall/Mo­ri­ah shift­ed an elec­torate of 279 to Bagatelle/Ba­co­let.

This re­duced the elec­torate of Ma­son Hall/Mo­ri­ah to 3,924, and its polling di­vi­sions to sev­en.

Al­so, as a re­sult of the trans­fer, the elec­torate of Bagatelle/Ba­co­let was in­creased to 3,408 with 10 polling di­vi­sions – bring­ing both elec­toral dis­tricts in­to con­for­mi­ty with EBC rules.

The com­mis­sion stat­ed that it con­sid­ered the im­pact of the rec­om­mend­ed bound­ary ad­just­ments on dis­trict nam­ing to best en­sure rep­re­sen­ta­tive com­mu­ni­ties are re­flect­ed in these names.

“Con­se­quent­ly, the two name changes were rec­om­mend­ed,” the EBC added.

Fol­low­ing the ad­just­ments, the EBC stat­ed that the dis­tricts with the high­est elec­torate are Ma­son Hall North/Mo­ri­ah and Bethel/New Grange. Each has an elec­torate of 3,924.

The dis­trict with the low­est elec­torate is Bon Ac­cord/Crown Point with an elec­torate of 3,159.

The EBC stat­ed that the elec­torate range be­tween the dis­tricts with the high­est and low­est num­ber of elec­tors is 765. The elec­toral dis­trict with the high­est num­ber of elec­tors is 24.21 per cent above the low­est, with the low­est be­ing 19.5 per cent be­low the high­est.