Caption: The Red House where the Parliament of Trinidad and Tobago sits. AZP News/Azlan Mohammed
By Prior Beharry
THE Elections and Boundaries (EBC) recommends name changes in five constituencies.
This was revealed in the 2024 Report of the EBC into the review of the number and boundaries of the Constituencies into which Trinidad and Tobago is divided, pursuant to Section 72 of the Constitution. It was laid in Parliament on Friday.
Among the recommendations is the change of names of five constituencies:
- Arouca/Maloney is to be renamed Trincity/Maloney;
- D’Abadie/O’Meara is to be renamed Malabar/Mausica;
- Lopinot/Bon Air West is to be renamed Arouca/Lopinot;
- St Joseph is to be renamed Aranguez/St. Joseph; and
- Pointe-a-Pierre is to be renamed Claxton Bay.
The number of constituencies remains at 41- 39 in Trinidad and two in Tobago.
The report stated: The Commission also commenced a review of the names of constituencies to more properly reflect the geographical areas encompassed within a constituency. Building patterns were examined using Geographic Information Systems and objectively analysed using the Getis-Ord Gi algorithm for each constituency in Trinidad and Tobago. These were further coupled with community mappings to derive suitable names of constituencies. This was based on the geographic extent of settlements coupled with its Getis-Ord Gi expression for the identification of representative communities – forming the basis of the recommendations for the changes in constituency names in the instant Report.”
The EBC also recommended alterations of polling divisions in 16 constituencies:
- Caroni Central;
- Tabaquite;
- Pointe-a-Pierre;
- Cumuto/Manzanilla;
- La Horquetta/Talparo;
- D’Abadie/O’Meara;
- Arouca/Maloney;
- Port of Spain North/St. Ann’s West;
- Port of Spain South;
- Laventille West;
- Laventille East/Morvant;
- San Fernando East;
- Oropouche East;
- San Fernando West;
- Toco/Sangre Grande: and
- Arima.
The report noted that the average electors per constituency was 28,078 in Trinidad and 26,082 in Tobago.
The permissible upper limit was 30,887 and 28,690 in Trinidad and Tobago respectively.
And the permissible lower limit was 25,271 in Trinidad and 23,473 in Tobago.
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Why is there a disparity for Trinidad and Tobago. All constituencies must have the same upper limit and lower limit if the Nu’s for Tobago were applied to Trinidad then two more Constituencies will be created.
The acceptable electors in a Constituency should be twenty thousand with the maxium be twenty-three thousand as the upper limit and twenty thousand being the lower limit and stop increasing the limit and MP should only represent 20 to 1