EBC: 34,857 potential new voters

SOME 34,857 people will be eligible to vote for the first time in the general election, suggested figures from the Election and Boundaries Commissions (EBC.)

There are 1,134,136 registered electors who will be eligible to vote in the August 10 general election, the EBC said in a statement on its website on Thursday evening.

The new voters make up 3.5 per cent of the million-plus electorate.

The EBC also gave a breakdown of registered voters in the constituencies. The most populous constituency is Toco/Sangre Grande ,with 31,096 registered voters, while the least is Tobago East with 23,103.

The number of new potential voters is quite comparable to the margins by which some MPs won their seats in the 2015 election in some marginal seats.

Most strikingly, in 2015 the PNM won Moruga/Tableland by 533 votes (PNM - 10,808; UNC - 10,275) but the number of new potential voters since then is 1,130 (the constituency electorate growing from 27,913 last election to 29,043 now).

La Horquetta/Talparo, being contested by the PNM’s Foster Cummings and UNC’s Jearlean John, has seen an expansion in its electorate of 2,362 new voters (up from 25,165 in 2015 to 27,527).

That seat was won by the PNM in 2015 by a 2,822 margin (PNM - 10,428; UNC - 7,606).

Chaguanas East, won by the UNC by a margin of 2,576 votes, now has 1,435 new potential voters. The PNM won Tunapuna by 3,165 votes and now has 783 new potential voters. The PNM won St Joseph by 1,631 votes and now has 799 new potential voters. The UNC won Pointe-a-Pierre by 1,506 votes and now has 518 new potential voters.

The PNM won San Fernando West by 3,310 votes and now has 542 new potential voters.

This election will see 150 candidates vying for 41 seats. In 2015, the PNM got 23 seats while 18 went to the UNC.