Minister of Land and Legal Affairs Saddam Hosein has accused the Opposition PNM of deliberately manipulating electoral boundaries to secure a political advantage in the past.
Making his contribution on the Municipal Corporations (Amendment) Bill, 2026, he revisited a decision by the Opposition to reduce the number of Municipal Corporations from 19 to 14, arguing that the changes were driven by political considerations.
“This member, Mr Speaker, was involved in that exercise with respect to gerrymandering and merging Corporations, Mr Speaker. So today, when he comes to give us a lecture about packing and stacking, they were packing and stacking since 1992. That is what they were doing.”
The Minister pointed to Act 21 of 1990, passed under the NAR administration, which established 19 Municipal Corporations across Trinidad and Tobago.
“Port of Spain, San Fernando, Arima, Point Fortin, Chaguanas, Diego Martin, Laventille, San Juan, two separate Corporations. Tunapuna, Piarco, two separate Corporations. Sangre Grande, Mayaro, Rio Claro, Prince Town, Tabaquite/Talparo, Couva, separate from Tabaquite/Talparo, Penal, Debe was even separate from Penal, and Siparia.”
He said the number of Corporations was later reduced to 14 under a PNM administration.
“So you know what they did? They said, ‘Listen, let us merge. Let us merge.’ So you took Couva, and you put it in Tabaquite-Talparo. You took Penal, and you make Penal-Debe, and they wanted to make Penal-Debe-Siparia, eh. They wanted to make those three into one, you know. The Member of Parliament then had to fight, and also the honourable Prime Minister at that time in the local government fraternity to fight a separate Siparia out of Penal-Debe. Then they joined San Juan-Laventille. But what they did, Mr Speaker, doing that always gave the PNM the political advantage. This was not based on science.”
The Minister also defended the proposal to grant city status to Chaguanas and borough status to Barataria.
“The current electorate of Chaguanas is right now 71,000 persons, 71,000 spread across eight electoral districts. The electorate of Port of Spain currently is 37,000 spread across 12 districts. Port of Spain is a city. When you have a Corporation like Point Fortin that has 17,000 people, 17,000 people, and you call it a borough, you are complaining about the borough of Barataria.”