Caribbean & Central America - December 2016 (ISSN 1741-4458)

Trinidad & Tobago’s People’s National Movement (PNM) government, led by Prime Minister Keith Rowley, won the 28 November local government elections by 7-6 against the opposition United National Congress (UNC), with a tie for the Sangre Grande Corporation. The PNM won 83 of the 137 electoral seats in the 14 corporations, and the UNC won 54.

The most notable feature of the election was the very low turnout, which was put at just 17%. At the 2013 local elections, also won by the PNM, the turnout was over 43%. The other notable feature was that none of the five other parties or four independents won a seat.

Despite the PNM victory, the UNC was able to take comfort from winning several districts that were previously held by the PNM and by winning the popular vote. The UNC secured 122,558 votes (51%) against the PNM’s 117,054 (49%). This was enough for UNC leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar to declare a moral victory.

The former prime minister said: “Tonight I believe is a victory for the people of Trinidad and Tobago. We asked that the people send a message to the Government that there was so much pain and suffering that the time for change has come. We trust that the Rowley Government received that message.”

Persad-Bissessar added that the result was a “sign of victory to come” on the national stage. However, the PNM government has only been in power for 15 months and so there is some time to go before the next general election. It is also worth noting that the UNC won the popular vote in the September 2015 general election, which the PNM won by a close 23-18 seats, so the local election result does not represent any major shift in public opinion.

Rowley declared himself (and the PNM) “very pleased” with the results. He said that the local polls had been held “at a particularly difficult time for Trinidad and Tobago” and that, therefore, it was not surprising that “there were some people who were disappointed that things were not as rosy as it should be”.

The government will be hoping, above all else, that the recent decision by the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) to cut production will result in a sustained rise in the price of oil. However, Trinidad & Tobago has been “invited” by Opec, along with 13 other non-Opec countries, to participate in the production cut back.

It is not yet clear how much of a cut Trinidad will be expected to contribute, but a meeting to discuss this has been scheduled for 10 December in Vienna. Trinidad’s current production is around 66,000 barrels per day. In total, Opec is looking for a 600,000 barrel per day contribution from non-Opec countries, including Russia which has been asked to reduce output by 300,000 barrels per day.

Meanwhile, state-owned oil company Petrotrin has announced a preliminary loss of TT$533m (US$79m) for the year ending in September, down from the 2015 loss of TT$819m (US$121m). A company statement noted: “Lower operating expenses helped to reduce the loss from the prior year. The Company continues to meet its debt service, required capital expenditure, and asset maintenance obligations with the support of its shareholder.”