Some 1,134,136 people are eligible to cast ballots at the estimated 2,200 polling stations.

Today, the incumbent People’s National Movement (PNM) will try to hold on to its 23 seats, as well as wrest more from the grip of the opposition United National Congress (UNC) and the Congress of the People (COP).

The Elections and Boundaries Commission (EBC) said it has been working with the Ministry of Health, putting in place protocols to govern Election Day activities, including the wearing of masks inside the polling station.

COVID-19 platform

Prime Minister Dr Keith C. Rowley has urged the population to follow the protocols being outlined by the EBC urging them to take the threat of COVID-19 seriously.

“There are people who believe that they must put their finger in the wound to believe that there could be pain,” Rowley said in a statement. “If there are people who decide that this is a joke then they must be made to understand that this is not a joke, and it is not a dare and double dare, and it is not machismo — it is common sense,” he said.

On the UNC’s side, political leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar slammed the government’s response to COVID-19 at every turn, and promised on the political platform to increase testing for the virus and to bring home nationals still outside the country’s closed borders.

Persad-Bisessar also vowed to reduce taxes, create 50,000 jobs and resuscitate the sugar industry in Trinidad and Tobago.

According to the EBC, over 1.1 million citizens are eligible to vote in this year’s election. 146 candidates from 19 political parties, and four Independents will be contesting the 41 constituencies across Trinidad and Tobago.