Joel Julien

In the past two Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment elec­tions six cor­po­ra­tions were re­spon­si­ble for the shift in pow­er.

These six cor­po­ra­tions are the San Fer­nan­do City Cor­po­ra­tion, the Ari­ma and Ch­agua­nas Bor­ough Cor­po­ra­tions and the Diego Mar­tin, Tu­na­puna/Pi­ar­co and San­gre Grande Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tions.

While there are 14 cor­po­ra­tions in all up for grabs across Trinidad in the up­com­ing elec­tions, ac­cord­ing to the re­sults of the 2010 and 2013 Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment elec­tions there are five in par­tic­u­lar that changed hands be­tween the two main po­lit­i­cal par­ties–the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) and the Peo­ple's Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM).

While the sixth, the Ch­agua­nas Bor­ough Cor­po­ra­tion, still re­mains un­der the stew­ard­ship of the UNC, there was a sig­nif­i­cant shift in pow­er be­tween the two elec­tions.

Fol­low­ing the re­sults of the 2013 Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment elec­tion the UNC were on­ly able to re­tain pow­er at the Ch­agua­nas Bor­ough Cor­po­ra­tion be­cause an elect­ed coun­cil­lor rep­re­sent­ing the In­de­pen­dent Lib­er­al Par­ty switched his po­lit­i­cal al­le­giance.

Start­ing this week, the Sun­day Guardian will be tak­ing a look at these six cor­po­ra­tions as we count down to this year's Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment elec­tion card­ed for No­vem­ber 28.

A look back

The last time the coun­try went to the polls for the Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment elec­tions was Oc­to­ber 21, 2013.

In that elec­tion the PNM won eight of the cor­po­ra­tions while the UNC won six.

This was a sig­nif­i­cant shift from the re­sults of the 2010 Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment elec­tions in which the UNC-led Peo­ple's Part­ner­ship coali­tion con­vinc­ing­ly beat the PNM 11-3.

The last time Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment elec­tions were held in this coun­try be­fore 2010 was in 2003.

The Elec­tions and Bound­aries Com­mis­sion said the 2013 Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment elec­tion was of "his­tor­i­cal sig­nif­i­cance" be­cause it was the first time that a sys­tem of "pro­por­tion­al rep­re­sen­ta­tion was in­tro­duced for the se­lec­tion of Al­der­men and Mu­nic­i­pal and Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tions".

This changed the num­ber of al­der­men to be elect­ed to the cor­po­ra­tions.

The EBC faced some chal­lenges with car­ry­ing out its man­date with re­spect to the changes in­tro­duced by the sys­tem of pro­por­tion­al rep­re­sen­ta­tion.

"There were chal­lenges in giv­ing ef­fect to the pro­vi­sions of (the Mu­nic­i­pal Cor­po­ra­tions Amend­ment) Act No 13 of 2013. Chal­lenges which could have been more eas­i­ly over­come if the Com­mis­sion had been con­sult­ed be­fore the bill was pre­sent­ed to Par­lia­ment," the EBC stat­ed in its re­port on the 2013 Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment elec­tions.

These chal­lenges were, how­ev­er, over­come.

The 2013 elec­tions saw the largest num­ber of peo­ple vot­ing in a Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment elec­tion in this coun­try.

A to­tal of 452,031 peo­ple vot­ed in that elec­tion.

This rep­re­sent­ed 43.60 per cent of the to­tal num­ber of peo­ple el­i­gi­ble to vote, ac­cord­ing to the EBC's vot­er list.

A to­tal of 429 were nom­i­nat­ed as can­di­dates when Nom­i­na­tion Day was held for the elec­tion on Sep­tem­ber 30, 2013.

Even­tu­al­ly one of the PNM's nom­i­nees with­drew his can­di­da­ture be­fore the elec­tion.

When the re­sults were even­tu­al­ly tal­lied the PNM came out vic­to­ri­ous.

And now...

This year's Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment elec­tions comes just over a year af­ter the PNM won this coun­try's gen­er­al elec­tion.

A to­tal of $191.1 mil­lion has been al­lo­cat­ed to the 14 cor­po­ra­tions in the Na­tion­al Bud­get.

Ac­cord­ing to the EBC fig­ures there are cur­rent­ly 1,051,115 el­i­gi­ble to vote in the up­com­ing elec­tion.

Peo­ple hop­ing to vote in the elec­tions have up un­til Wednes­day to reg­is­ter.

In the build-up to these elec­tions the PNM led by Min­is­ter of Rur­al De­vel­op­ment and Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment

Franklin Khan held con­sul­ta­tions on Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment re­form through­out the coun­try.

Khan, how­ev­er, said there would be no Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment re­form in time for this year's elec­tion. The leg­is­la­tion is ex­pect­ed to go be­fore the Par­lia­ment be­fore the end of the year.

Both of the coun­try's lead­ing po­lit­i­cal par­ties, the PNM and the UNC, have al­ready start­ed screen­ing can­di­dates to rep­re­sent them as Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment coun­cil­lors.

Nom­i­na­tion day for the Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment elec­tions will be No­vem­ber 7.

What ex­act­ly is

Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment?

Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment in T&T is han­dled through five mu­nic­i­pal­i­ties and nine re­gion­al cor­po­ra­tions in Trinidad, and the To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly (THA) in To­ba­go.

The THA elec­tions are con­sti­tu­tion­al­ly due next Jan­u­ary.

To­ba­go will there­fore not be vot­ing in the up­com­ing Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment elec­tions.

Many of the com­mu­ni­ty ser­vices and fa­cil­i­ties in your com­mu­ni­ty are pro­vid­ed by cor­po­ra­tions.

Mu­nic­i­pal cor­po­ra­tions are re­spon­si­ble for the build­ing and main­te­nance of lo­cal roads, bridges and drains, col­lect­ing garbage, main­tain­ing parks and com­mu­ni­ty fa­cil­i­ties, is­su­ing build­ing ap­provals, and over­see­ing pub­lic health and san­i­ta­tion.