Chaguanas West special voters who began casting ballots yesterday are part of an electorate that has increased in leaps and bounds since 1946, when Chaguanas West was defined as part of Caroni, grew into its own as Chaguanas and then was split into Chaguanas West six years ago. And though traditionally opposition heartland, Chaguanas West over the last decade or so has also been the battleground for much opposition in-fighting. The Elections and Boundaries Commission yesterday confirmed the voting electorate for Monday’s Chaguanas West by election is 27,051. The number of special voters, who began voting yesterday and can continue this week up to Sunday, totals 79 according to the EBC. Back in the 1946 election, however, according to EBC Web site statistics, Chaguanas West was located within a seat which covered the central part of Trinidad and was known simply as Caroni.
In the 1946 election it was taken by Clarence Carmichael Abidh. Out of the 28,640 voters then, Abidh won with 15,130 votes. For the 1956 general election, Chaguanas West then became part of what was known as Caroni North. That seat was won that year by the legendary Bhadase Sagan Maharaj, founder of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP). The electorate then was 15,023. Maharaj received 12, 928 votes. The electorate of the overall area grew since 1956 from 15,023 when Chaguanas West was part of Caroni North, to 12,615 in 1961 when it first became the Chaguanas constituency. The electorate in Chaguanas peaked in 2002 with 28,347 voters and by the 2007 general election, the seat was split into Chaguanas East and Chaguanas West. Jack Warner, who quit in April as Chaguanas West MP, had contested an electorate of 28,640 in that constituency in 2007 and won with 17,947 votes on a UNC ticket. Warner won the seat again in the 2010 poll for the UNC/PP coalition when the electorate was 25,715. He polled 20,211 votes, the highest in that year’s general election. The electorate of Chaguanas East was 22,383 in 2007. It was contested and won by PNM’s Mustapha Abdul-Hamid with 15,836 votes. Abdul-Hamid and PNM lost the seat in 2010 to UNC/PP’s Stephen Cadiz (17,553 votes).
Traditionally, Chaguanas West, from the time it was classified as Caroni North to date, has been held by parties opposed to the PNM. The seat was only won by the PNM once during the 1971 no vote campaign by the then opposition parties. PNM’s Balraj Deonarine, now deceased, took Chaguanas West in that election. Four of the area’s former MPs—Winston Dookeran, Ramesh Lutchmedial, Hulsie Bhaggan and Manohar Ramsaran—are still active, though not all politically. Lutchmedial heads the T&T’s Civil Aviation and Bhaggan is involved in social work. Dookeran is the COP/PP’s Tunapuna MP. Ramsaran lost out on his bid to contest the upcoming by-election and is campaigning with the UNC against Warner and the six other contenders in Monday’s by-election. As the battleground for in-fighting among the opposition parties, between 1991 to 2007 under the Basdeo Panday-led UNC, Chaguanas West experienced shifts in MPs as a results of issues plaguing the UNC.
Panday placed Hulsie Bhaggan to contest Chaguanas against then NAR MP Winston Dookeran in 1991 after Panday left the NAR and formed the UNC in 1988. Bhaggan, whom Panday later dropped, was replaced for the 1995 polls by Ramsaran. In turn, Panday gave Ramsaran the heave-ho in 2007 after Ramsaran went with the COP. That party was founded by Dookeran, who had relinked with Panday but fell out with him again in 2006 after Dookeran assumed UNC leadership. Dookeran and other UNC MPs, including Ramsaran, went to the Parliament’s backbench, then COP was later formed in 2007. Panday, who by then had shored up the ailing UNC stocks with Warner, placed Warner to fight what became Chaguanas West in 2007. And Warner, who subsequently fell out with Panday, later in 2010 linked with Kamla Persad-Bissessar after she took the UNC leadership from Panday. After three years at her side with the PP and after backing others to lead a party, Warner, now leading his own Independent Liberal Party, now seeks the UNC seat on his own.
Chaguanas West over the years
1956 Within Caroni North — Bhadase Sagan Maharaj (PDP).
1961 As Chaguanas — Tajmool Hosein (DLP).
1966 Chaguanas — Rudranath Capildeo (DLP.
1971 Chaguanas — Opposition no vote campaign — Balraj Deonarine (PNM).
1976 Chaguanas — Ramesh Lutchmedial (ULF).
1981 Chaguanas — Winston Dookeran (ULF).
1986 Chaguanas — Winston Dookeran (NAR).
1991 Chaguanas — Hulsie Bhaggan (UNC).
1995 Chaguanas — Manohar Ramsaran (UNC).
2000 Chaguanas — Manohar Ramsaran (UNC).
2001 Chaguanas — Manohar Ramsaran (UNC).
2002 Chaguanas — Manohar Ramsaran (UNC).
2007 Chaguanas West — Jack Warner (UNC).
2010 Chaguanas West — Jack Warner (UNC/PP).
(source: EBC websites)