Government has taken the first step towards ensuring the population receives equitable service from municipal bodies by establishing a committee to review and recommend changes to electoral boundaries.
Minister of Rural Development and Local Government Khadijah Ameen distributed letters of appointment to 11 members of the Committee for Review and Recommendations of Boundaries on Friday.
“It is Trinidad and Tobago, while our municipalities cover Trinidad, it is important to have the Tobago perspective and so I am pleased to welcome Attorney-at-Law, my sister, Ms. Christlyn Moore, to the Committee. What the data proves to us, that there is a huge disparity in electoral representation with the current configuration.”
Minister Ameen explained that under the current configuration, one Councillor represents 3,800 people, while another represents 14,341.
“When we have such disparity that we have an area of 12 kilometres being serviced by one municipality and an area such as Sangre Grande, which is the largest municipality, being 927 square kilometres, you understand the disparity and the need for equity.”
The Minister said the matter requires urgent attention.
“It is very clear that we must take a critical review of the boundaries, we must consider the geographic issues, the type of region where we have the rural areas, the coastal areas. We have developing town centres and our development objectives as a government. We must consider where the population has grown significantly that requires additional focus.”
Minister Ameen said the exercise will inform funding to the Municipal Corporations.