Gail Alexan­der

Peo­ple's Na­tion­al Move­ment sev­en, Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress six–and both tied for the San­gre Grande Cor­po­ra­tion.

It was a nar­row vic­to­ry for the rul­ing PNM in yes­ter­day's Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment Elec­tion.

The PNM fin­ished ahead of the Op­po­si­tion UNC by on­ly one cor­po­ra­tion, los­ing sev­er­al seats to the UNC, with both tied in San­gre Grande.

How­ev­er, Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley told re­porters around 10.20 pm last night, "We're very pleased with re­sults ...it was a hand­some vic­to­ry for which we're grate­ful."

It was PNM chair­man Franklin Khan rather than Row­ley, how­ev­er, who had spo­ken first, de­clar­ing vic­to­ry for the PNM.

Khan said the PNM held on to sev­en of its for­mer cor­po­ra­tions and had tied for San­gre Grande. He said the PNM won 83 of the 137 elec­toral seats in the 14 cor­po­ra­tions, and UNC won 54.

While stat­ing the PNM picked up two new seats–Cara­po and Les Ef­forts West, San Fer­nan­do–Khan con­ced­ed the PNM had lost "one seat" and that the UNC had picked up new seats in sev­er­al ar­eas.

An elat­ed Op­po­si­tion Leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar, speak­ing around 10.55 pm, claimed the out­come as vic­to­ry.

She told cel­e­brat­ing sup­port­ers at UNC's Cou­va head­quar­ters the par­ty had tak­en "12 PNM" seats. Last night's re­sults nar­rowed the 8-6 gap be­tween the PNM and the UNC's re­sults in the 2013 elec­tions.

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The PNM and UNC will now have to draw straws to de­ter­mine who will con­trol the San­gre Grande Cor­po­ra­tion, Row­ley said.

The poll was marked by a very low vot­er turnout es­ti­mat­ed at ap­prox­i­mate­ly 17 per cent last night. If con­firmed, this would be a sig­nif­i­cant drop com­pared to the 2013 elec­tion, when the PNM's vic­to­ry broke vot­er turnout records with a 43.2 per cent turnout.

The rul­ing PNM main­tained its ma­jor­i­ty hold on cor­po­ra­tions in Ari­ma, Diego Mar­tin, Point Fortin, San Fer­nan­do, Port-of-Spain, San Juan/Laven­tille and Tu­na­puna/Pi­ar­co.

PNM al­so won the Les Ef­forts West for the first time in 24 years, At­tor­ney Gen­er­al Faris Al-Rawi said. But the PNM lost ground to the UNC in San Juan/Laven­tille and Tu­na­puna/Pi­ar­co.

The UNC held on to its cor­po­ra­tions of Ch­agua­nas, Siparia, Cou­va/Tabaquite/Tal­paro, Pe­nal/Debe, Ma­yaro/Rio Claro and Princes Town.

Apart from de­fend­ing Ch­agua­nas and Siparia, which the PNM had strong­ly tar­get­ed, the UNC al­so won a sec­ond seat in San Juan East (where it al­ready held one) and an­oth­er in Tu­na­puna/Pi­ar­co

PN­Mites at Bal­isi­er House had lis­tened se­ri­ous­ly as re­sults be­gan com­ing in. But af­ter vic­to­ry was de­clared, mu­sic was turned up.

At UNC head­quar­ters, how­ev­er, a cel­e­bra­to­ry mood was in ef­fect since around 8.30 pm when the UNC be­gan de­clar­ing vic­to­ry in strong­holds.

SMALL PAR­TIES LOST...

The PNM-UNC bat­tle left no room for the five oth­er par­ties and four In­de­pen­dents who con­test­ed in var­i­ous ar­eas and all lost.

The Con­gress of the Peo­ple's nine can­di­dates failed in Tu­na­puna/Pi­ar­co, San Juan/Laven­tille, Siparia and San Fer­nan­do. The In­de­pen­dent Lib­er­al Par­ty's sev­en can­di­dates in Ch­agua­nas all lost.

The new Na­tion­al Sol­i­dar­i­ty As­sem­bly's nine can­di­dates lost in San­gre Grande, Cou­va/Tabaquite/Tal­paro, Princes Town and Ma­yaro/Rio Claro.

The Move­ment for So­cial Jus­tice lost in the 11 seats in Ari­ma, Point Fortin and Tu­na­puna.

The Na­tion­al De­mo­c­ra­t­ic's three Port-of-Spain can­di­dates failed, as did the four In­de­pen­dents who con­test­ed.

Yes­ter­day's nar­row PNM vic­to­ry and UNC's in­roads in sev­er­al ar­eas now rais­es ques­tions about the 14-month old Row­ley PNM Gov­ern­ment.

Pre­lim­i­nary es­ti­mates up to 11 pm showed 113,910 votes for the PNM and 116,391 for the UNC.

The elec­torate for yes­ter­day's ex­er­cise in the 136 seats (mi­nus Mon Re­pos/Navet where the PNM's can­di­date was un­op­posed) was 1,054,819.

Po­lit­i­cal par­ties had all re­marked on the low vot­er turnout

Of­fi­cials not­ed that vot­er turnouts have av­er­aged ap­prox­i­mate­ly 40 per cent over 1992 to 2013. Turnouts have gone from 37 per cent in 1992 to a record high of 43.2 per cent in 2013.

Among elec­tion is­sues, EBC CEO Ramesh Nanan yes­ter­day apol­o­gised for the shift­ing of polling sta­tions in Es­per­an­za and Dow Vil­lage, which was done yes­ter­day morn­ing due to an ad­min­is­tra­tive er­ror.

Apart from draw­ing straws for the San­gre Grande Cor­po­ra­tion on the ba­sis of last night's re­sults, the EBC will work out the al­lo­ca­tion of ap­prox­i­mate­ly 56 al­der­men for the re­spec­tive 14 cor­po­ra­tions.

This in­volves amend­ed Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment law con­cern­ing the math­e­mat­i­cal for­mu­la for the pro­por­tion­al rep­re­sen­ta­tion sys­tem which was passed in the last Peo­ple's Part­ner­ship's term.