Office briefing
PENAL/DEBE — Municipal/regional council
Tracked current office. Identifiers stay separate from display names.
Trinidad and Tobago · PENAL/DEBE · municipal · Municipal/regional councilTT-C-PENAL-DEBE
Read the complete original research briefing
Three ordinary council cycles, with the valid 2024 Lengua replacement completing its 2023 cycle. The 2016 national vote and ballot totals now reconcile. Councillor and alderman seats stay separate. Ward ballots overlap these corporation aggregates; do not sum votes across the two levels. Subsequent by-elections and current control remain to be verified.
1. What office, where, and when is the next election?
- Geography
- PENAL/DEBE
- Next election
- 2027-08
- Linked upcoming event
- next-587978d5b2ca38fd2c67b01c
- Registry qualification
- Unknown
2. How certain is that date?
2027-08 is expected (not formally called). Month precision — no calendar day supplied. A date without a formal call is not confirmed.
3. Who won earlier selected elections?
2023-08-14
Ordinary · Legal certification not established · list votes
- UNC81.1%
- PNM13.9%
- PEP4.8%
- PDP0.1%
| Label / candidate | Party code | Votes | Share | Seats | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UNC | trinidad-and-tobago/S0063554cc2/2023 | 21,139 | 81.1% | 14 | Recorded |
| PNM | trinidad-and-tobago/S0063554cc2/2023 | 3,629 | 13.9% | 0 (recorded zero) | Recorded |
| PEP | trinidad-and-tobago/S0063554cc2/2023 | 1,263 | 4.8% | 0 (recorded zero) | Recorded |
| PDP | trinidad-and-tobago/S0063554cc2/2023 | 31 | 0.1% | 0 (recorded zero) | Recorded |
2019-12-02
Ordinary · Legal certification not established · list votes
- UNC83.4%
- PNM16.6%
| Label / candidate | Party code | Votes | Share | Seats | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UNC | trinidad-and-tobago/Sfed72d3252/2019 | 25,820 | 83.4% | 14 | Recorded |
| PNM | trinidad-and-tobago/Sfed72d3252/2019 | 5,123 | 16.6% | 0 (recorded zero) | Recorded |
2016-11-28
Ordinary · Legal certification not established · list votes
- UNC79.1%
- PNM20.9%
| Label / candidate | Party code | Votes | Share | Seats | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UNC | trinidad-and-tobago/S2157f02080/2016 | 24,310 | 79.1% | 13 | Recorded |
| PNM | trinidad-and-tobago/S2157f02080/2016 | 6,441 | 20.9% | 0 (recorded zero) | Recorded |
4. Competition and volatility
competition index
Provisional imported-series CI0 (recorded zero)0–100 historical closeness
Actual-event and/or comparability review incomplete
Comparison status: Provisional imported-series comparison; actual-event review open
Method ci.weighted-gap.v1. Inputs: latest_gap=67.18594121709768, oldest_gap=58.108679392540076, previous_gap=66.88750282778011
pedersen volatility
Provisional volatility4.97percentage points
Grouped Pedersen lower bound (percentage points). Exact PNM and UNC labels, plus Other for all minor parties and independent candidates. Corporation and ward ballots overlap and are not summed across levels. Boundary changes and intervening ward events remain subject to the office review. An interval is withheld if either election has no list mapped to an explicit named group. This is aggregate share change, not individual voter switching. Event review: Actual-event and/or comparability review incomplete
Comparison status: Latest interval
Method pedersen.grouped.v1. Inputs: groups=["PNM","UNC","Other"], interval=Latest interval, vectors=[[13.924487759957026,81.11042897705471,4.965083262988259],[16.556248586109945,83.44375141389006,0],[20.94566030372996,79.05433969627003,0]]
pedersen volatility
Provisional volatility4.39percentage points
Grouped Pedersen lower bound (percentage points). Exact PNM and UNC labels, plus Other for all minor parties and independent candidates. Corporation and ward ballots overlap and are not summed across levels. Boundary changes and intervening ward events remain subject to the office review. An interval is withheld if either election has no list mapped to an explicit named group. This is aggregate share change, not individual voter switching. Event review: Actual-event and/or comparability review incomplete
Comparison status: Previous interval
Method pedersen.grouped.v1. Inputs: groups=["PNM","UNC","Other"], interval=Previous interval, vectors=[[13.924487759957026,81.11042897705471,4.965083262988259],[16.556248586109945,83.44375141389006,0],[20.94566030372996,79.05433969627003,0]]
pedersen volatility
Provisional volatility4.68percentage points
Grouped Pedersen lower bound (percentage points). Exact PNM and UNC labels, plus Other for all minor parties and independent candidates. Corporation and ward ballots overlap and are not summed across levels. Boundary changes and intervening ward events remain subject to the office review. An interval is withheld if either election has no list mapped to an explicit named group. This is aggregate share change, not individual voter switching. Event review: Actual-event and/or comparability review incomplete
Comparison status: Both intervals mean
Method pedersen.grouped.v1. Inputs: groups=["PNM","UNC","Other"], interval=Both intervals mean, vectors=[[13.924487759957026,81.11042897705471,4.965083262988259],[16.556248586109945,83.44375141389006,0],[20.94566030372996,79.05433969627003,0]]
Source-reported control: Unverified. Current tenure requires separate dated evidence.
5. Officeholder evidence
Dated roster observations are not automatically current tenure. The source current-office flag means this office is tracked now, not that the last winner still holds it.
No officeholder observation supplied.
6. Polling context
No local poll supplied.
7. Unresolved issues and sources
other · open
Resolved rejected-ballot OCR discrepancy: Five individually inspected total rows restore 43 rejected ballots; 361178 valid + 1082 rejected = 362260 official ballots.
Sources
- Trinidad and Tobago: https://ebctt.com/wp-content/uploads/EBC-Local-Government-Elections-Report-2023.pdf · rights unknown
- Trinidad and Tobago: https://ebctt.com/wp-content/uploads/Report-of-the-Elections-and-Boundaries-Commission-on-the-Local-Government-Elections-held-on-Monday-December-2-2019.pdf · rights unknown
- Trinidad and Tobago: http://www.ebctt.com/wp-content/uploads/Final-Report-Local-Govt-Elections-2016.pdf · rights unknown
- Trinidad and Tobago: tt_reports_EBC-Local-Government-Elections-Report-2023.pdf · rights unknown
- Trinidad and Tobago: tt_reports_Report-of-the-Elections-and-Boundaries-Commission-on-the-Local-Government-Elections-held-on-Monday-December-2-2019.pdf · rights unknown
- Trinidad and Tobago: tt_2016.pdf · rights unknown
Cite this record
Center for Digital Democracy. “PENAL/DEBE — Municipal/regional council.” Subnational Election Observatory, releaselatin-america-fe5e91689def, snapshot 2026-09-13. /electiondatabase/offices/TT-C-PENAL-DEBE. Sources: trinidad-and-tobago--url-e06d066df6b1c4f85a3de4c1, trinidad-and-tobago--url-c6b46fcdadf702b8058e8dde, trinidad-and-tobago--url-f7e2ea4d318ed2fe90b34e7c, trinidad-and-tobago--S0063554cc2, trinidad-and-tobago--Sfed72d3252, trinidad-and-tobago--S2157f02080.