Gail Alexan­der

Se­nior Po­lit­i­cal Re­porter

The Op­po­si­tion Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) to­day opens Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment elec­tion nom­i­na­tions for 70 seats held by the rul­ing Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress Gov­ern­ment - while Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar will ad­vise in due course when the UNC will start their process, says Rur­al De­vel­op­ment and Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment Min­is­ter Kadi­jah Ameen.

This, as the Gov­ern­ment and Op­po­si­tion con­tin­ue prepar­ing for LG elec­tions due by mid- next year.

The last LG elec­tion was in Au­gust 2023. Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment elec­tions are con­sti­tu­tion­al­ly due by next year. In the 2023 LG elec­tion, where there were 141 seats, the UNC and PNM each won sev­en of the 14 cor­po­ra­tions. The UNC won 173,961 votes and the PNM 130, 868 votes. Turnout of the elec­torate then was 30.3 per cent.

Last No­vem­ber, Gov­ern­ment es­tab­lished an 11-mem­ber team, prac­ti­tion­ers and top UNC of­fi­cials un­der Ameen’s di­rec­tion to re­view and rec­om­mend changes to mu­nic­i­pal cor­po­ra­tion bound­aries. This is geared to ad­dress dis­par­i­ties in pop­u­la­tion, ge­o­graph­ic size and elec­toral rep­re­sen­ta­tion, fol­low­ing is­sues where the pop­u­la­tion of some LG ar­eas are much high­er than oth­ers. The team will bal­ance large dif­fer­ences in LG re­gions’ ge­o­graph­i­cal sizes, such as in the San­gre Grande Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion, com­pared to much small­er mu­nic­i­pal­i­ties.

Ameen had said then that the re­view is aimed at eq­ui­table ser­vice de­liv­ery, rur­al trans­for­ma­tion and en­sur­ing bound­aries do not un­nec­es­sar­i­ly split com­mu­ni­ties or vil­lages.

Yes­ter­day, Ameen said the Bound­aries Re­view Com­mit­tee is due to give its re­port soon

On when the UNC might be­gin look­ing at LG nom­i­na­tions, Ameen added, “Our po­lit­i­cal leader, Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar will ad­vise on nom­i­na­tions in due course.”

At the PNM’s Jan­u­ary 2026 gen­er­al coun­cil meet­ing, PNM leader Pen­ne­lope Beck­les an­nounced that LG nom­i­na­tions would be sought from to­day for seats cur­rent­ly con­trolled by the UNC.

Nom­i­na­tion pack­ages will be avail­able from 8 am up to March 31.

A memo from PNM as­sis­tant gen­er­al sec­re­tary Pa­tri­cia Alex­is stat­ed that nom­i­na­tions will be open for the fol­low­ing ar­eas where the PNM does not have coun­cil­lors cur­rent­ly.

CH­AGUA­NAS BOR­OUGH COR­PO­RA­TION: Char­lieville, Mon­trose, Cunu­pia, En­ter­prise North/Es­mer­al­da, En­ter­prise South/Long­denville North, Fe­lic­i­ty/En­deav­our, Munroe Road/Ca­roni.

COU­VA/TABAQUITE/TAL­PARO RE­GION­AL COR­PO­RA­TION: Long­denville.Tal­paro, San Pe­dro/Pi­paro/Tabaquite, LasLo­mas/San Rafael, Ca­paro/Mamoral, Freeport/Chick­land, Cal­cut­ta#3/McBean, Per­se­ver­ance/Wa­ter­loo, St Mary’s Carlsen Field, Caratal/Tor­tu­ga, Cou­va East/Roys­to­nia, Bonne Aven­ture/Gas­par­il­lo, Savonet­ta/Point Lisas, Clax­ton Bay/Pointe a Pierre, Brechin Cas­tle/Es­per­an­za.

MA­YARO RE­GION­AL COR­PO­RA­TION: Ec­clesville, Biche/Charu­ma, Co­cal/Mefek­ing, Rio Claro North, Rio Claro South, Ma­yaro South/Guyagua­yare.

PE­NAL DEBE COR­PO­RA­TION: Bar­rack­pore West, Bronte, Debe East/L’Es­per­ance/Union Hall, Debe South, La For­tune/Debe North, La Ro­maine, Palmiste/Her­mitage, Pe­nal, Quinam/Morne Di­a­blo, Rochard/Bar­rack­pore East.

RINCES TOWN COR­PO­RA­TION: Ben Lomond/Hard­bar­gain/Williamsville, Corinth/Cedar Hill, New Grant/Table­land, Hin­dus­tan/St Mary’s, Fifth Com­pa­ny, In­ver­ness/Princes Town South, Moru­ga, Re­form/Man­a­ham­re, St Julien/Princes Town North.

SAN FER­NAN­DO CITY COR­PO­RA­TION: Les Ef­forts West/La Ro­maine, Mara­bel­la East, Mara­bel­la South/Vista­bel­la, Mara­bel­la West.

SAN JUAN/LAVEN­TILLE RE­GION­AL COR­PO­RA­TION: El So­cor­ro/Aranguez North, Aranguez/Warn­er Vil­lage.

SAN­GRE GRANDE RE­GION­AL COR­PO­RA­TION: Man­zanil­la/Fish­ing Pond, Cu­mu­to/Tamana, Ve­ga de Oropouche, San­gre Grande South, Va­len­cia West.

SIPARIA BOR­OUGH COR­PO­RA­TION: Av­o­cat/San Fran­cique North. Ce­dros, Ota­heite/Rousil­lac, Mon De­sir, Siparia West/Fyz­abad, Siparia East/San Fran­cique South.

TU­NA­PUNA RE­GION­AL COR­PO­RA­TION: Cau­ra/Par­adise/Tacarigua, Curepe/Pasea, St Au­gus­tine South/Pi­ar­co/St He­le­na, Kel­ly Vil­lage/War­renville, Val­sayn/St Joseph.

The PNM’s nom­i­na­tion process in­volves par­ty groups, youth leagues or women’s leagues. The sta­tus of the mat­ter is ex­pect­ed to be among items in fo­cus at Sat­ur­day’s PNM gen­er­al coun­cil.