Political parties continued campaigning with motorcades down to late yesterday, ahead of today's Local Government Elections.
Elections and Boundaries Commission (EBC) chairman, Mark Ramkerrysingh, said the EBC had fine-tuned systems for today's polls.
"We've examined aspects and processes and feel confident—keeping fingers crossed—that everything will run to plan,"
"T&T is a much more mature electoral democracy and we're comfortable in the knowledge of that electoral process. It is citizens' democratic right to vote. We trust the law will be observed," Ramkerrysingh added.
And rain or not, there's no question of extended voting hours following recent court rulings that the EBC exceeded its power in extending hours in the September 2015 general poll.
Polls open at 6 am and close at 6 pm.
Seven political parties and four Independents are contesting today.
Campaigning climaxed yesterday with motorcades in the 14 corporation areas.
Prime Minister Keith Rowley led a motorcade in Sangre Grande while Opposition leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar was in Felicity. Both Sangre Grande and Chaguanas are election battlegrounds
The fight is largely between Rowley's ruling People's National Movement (PNM) which controls eight corporations and Persad-Bissessar's Opposition United National Congress (UNC) which holds six.
Each is trying to gain ground or take each other's turf. The PNM has a full slate of 137 candidates. The UNC has 134.
The PNM has already won Mon Repos/Navet by default. PNM's candidate Patricia Victor-Wilson is unopposed following the withdrawal of UNC candidate Daryl Soodeen, due to ill health. Soodeen and Victor-Wilson were the only contestants there.
As a result, voting will be occurring only in 136 of the 137 seats in the 14 corporations, EBC's chief election officer Ramesh Nanan confirmed.
Also, since the Mon Repos/Navet electorate—6.044—no longer has to vote, that electorate has been subtracted from the total Trinidad electorate which initially stood at 1,060863.
Following the subtraction of Mon Repos, the total electorate for today's exercise in the other 136 seats is, 1,054819, EBC said.
EBC has notified three parties contesting in Chaguanas—the PNM, UNC and ILP—of a relocation of four polling divisions in Chaguanas.
The four were relocated from Montrose (APS) Vedic Primary school to Presentation College, Chaguanas. Authorities had closed the school for health and safety reasons last week.
A section of the William Benn Memorial Baptist School, New Grant, will be used as a polling station since the school was being refurbished
Battlegrounds: East, South, Central
The ruling PNM holds corporations of Port-of-Spain, Diego Martin, San Juan/Laventille, Arima, Tunapuna/Piarco, Pt Fortin Sangre Grande, San Fernando.
The UNC holds Chaguanas, Siparia, Couva/Tabaquite/Talparo, Penal-Debe, Mayaro/Rio Claro and Princes Town.
Battlegrounds are expected to be the UNC -controlled Siparia and Chaguanas corporations which PNM has targeted. Also at focus is PNM-controlled Sangre Grande corporation where the UNC is seeking to regain seats. Chaguanas features a three-way fight among the PNM, UNC and Independent Liberal Party's seven candidates.
PNM hopes to route the UNC from Sangre Grande while the UNC seeks to regain ground there which was lost in 2013 to the ILP.
The Grande fight is among the PNM, UNC and National Solidarity Assembly's five candidates.
The NSA is also contesting (one seat) each in Princes Town and Mayaro-Rio Claro corporations, where the UNC and PNM are also vying.
NSA will also be fighting the PNM and UNC in Couva/Tabaquite/Talparo .