All of the five smaller parties and eight independents who were tested in yesterday’s Local Government election failed to make a showing.
The Port-of-Spain People’s Movement (PPM), Congress of the People (COP), Movement for Social Justice (MSJ), Movement for National Development (MND) and National Transformation Party (NPT) and eight independents had contested among the 338 candidates.
Well ahead of the final election outcome at 8.20 pm when the T&T Guardian contacted PPM chairman Louis Lee Sing, he conceded defeat in the 12 PoS seats his party contested.
“Based on the results arriving, it suggests Port-of-Spain is very comfortable with the other party’s messages. Two of our candidates did all right—Cleveland Garcia and Dada Gabriel. But that’s the way politics is,” he said in replying to queries on if he and PPM would continue in politics.
He added, “I didn’t have a $50 million budget. It was a very good experiment. We may return again, who knows because politics is life.”
Lee Sing, however, noted the PNM’s Sangre Grande failure and its loss of ground in San Fernando.
MSJ leader David Abdulah conceded victory, saying he didn’t think people’s mood of being “fed up” would change. He said MSJ would return to the communities to work.
At 8.47 pm, COP’s Carolyn Seepersad-Bachan admitted they had lost to the UNC in Curepe-Pasea seat (Tunapuna/Piarco Regional Corporation), one of the nine areas the party contested.
Candidates in yesterday’s election needed to win one-eighth of the votes cast in their area to get back their $2,000 deposit.
Clouding yesterday’s election was a myriad of complaints about irregularities from the UNC against the PNM and even the EBC. The PNM also accused the UNC of rule-breaking.
But EBC CEO Fern Narcis-Scope said around midday that there had been no issue which required a reprimand for any party.
Last night, EBC officials said voting had gone smoothly and reports of irregularities and issues had been dealt with. While voting began on time, only one polling station in an Ecclesville division opened half an hour late, at 6.30 am, due to a “mix-up”. That station wasn’t given an extended time to 6.30 pm, since it was part of two polling stations and the other had started on time at 6 am, EBC officials said. Both stations closed at 6 pm.