HUNDREDS of candidates in 14 corporations across Trinidad on Monday filed forms on nomination day for 141 seats in the August 14 local government elections.
Speaking to Newsday at 7.30 pm, after the 9 am-12 noon period for filing, Elections and Boundaries Commission (EBC) corporate communications officer Bobbi Rogers said she was still receiving information from some 55 returning officers spread across Trinidad.
Newsday asked if there had been any disruptions such as power-cuts or rejections of prospective candidates.
She replied, "At this point in time there wasn't anything like that, to our knowledge.
"Nobody gave us any indication of anything of that nature."
Up to that point, she said about six people had filed as independent candidates, although that number could rise as more data came in from several outstanding areas.
[caption id="attachment_1022928" align="alignnone" width="1024"] PNM candidate for Auzonville/Tunapuna, John-Boyd Briggs, centre, celebrates with supporters at the Upper El Dorado Community Centre, College Road, El Dorado after filing his nomination papers for local government elections on Monday. - Anisto Alves[/caption]
The PNM has urged voters to turn out to show support for its plan of local government reform including devolution of certain powers from central government to corporations, creating executive committees to be run by full-time councillors and using the property tax as a self-funding mechanism for councils.
The UNC and several smaller opposition parties have urged voters to use the occasion to express their frustration at issues such as bad roads, unemployment, food prices and rampant crime. Other parties included the PEP, NTA and PDP.
The PNM and UNC enter this election evenly balanced in terms of the number of councils they control, seven each. The 2019 local government election saw 372,503 votes cast, out of 1,079,976 registered voters, from which the UNC won the popular vote with 202,584 votes or 54 per cent of votes cast.
The PNM presented their prospective candidates at a convention at NAPA, Port of Spain, on Sunday, while the UNC presented theirs at Naparima College, San Fernando on Monday night. The PEP and NTA held news briefings on Monday evening to present theirs, while PDP head Watson Duke presented two PDP candidates (Safraz Ali and Joanne Hoyte for San Juan/Laventille Regional Corporation) in an online broadcast earlier on Monday.
At 7 pm, media houses received a PNM statement saying the party had successfully filed nominations for 141 PNM candidates.
"Seventy-six men and sixty-five women, of varied ages, religious beliefs, professions, and levels of experience have offered themselves to be of service to their home communities as the PNM readies itself to roll out the major improvements to the system of local governance that are synonymous with local government reform.
"The PNM therefore has in place a PNM standard bearer in every single electoral district across the 14 municipalities in Trinidad as viable and credible options for the el
