Parliament Passes Municipal Corporations Amendment Bill After Overnight Debate

The Senate passed the Municipal Corporations (Amendment) Bill, 2026, clearing the way for Chaguanas to become a city and for four new boroughs — Barataria, Couva, St Augustine and Sangre Grande — while redrawing municipal boundaries. The Government says the changes will improve representation and service delivery, but Opposition senators warned of missing documents, political bias and unanswered questions about costs and implementation.

The Senate passed the Municipal Corporations (Amendment) Bill, 2026 by 23 votes to six, with one abstention, as the Government said the reforms will improve population-based representation and modernise local government. Ministers Khadijah Ameen and Saddam Hosein insisted the changes, including Chaguanas becoming a city, will not delay the upcoming Local Government elections.

Minister of Rural Development and Local Government Khadijah Ameen says planned reforms to local government will not delay preparations for the next elections and will not cost regional corporation workers their jobs. She said the Municipal Corporations Amendment Bill aims to improve fairness in representation and resources, and defended the move to elevate Chaguanas to city status based on growth data.

Residents and workers in Couva have largely welcomed the Government’s plan to make the Central Trinidad community a borough, saying it could bring more development, funding and public services closer to people. The Municipal Corporations (Amendment) Bill, 2026, passed in the House Wednesday, but some business owners questioned whether the change will help unless flooding, crime and declining business activity are fixed.

Siparia alderman Victor Roberts has accused Mayor Doodnath Mayrhoo of poor leadership and arrogance, blaming him for the political turmoil at the Siparia Borough Corporation after recent defections shifted control from the UNC to the PNM. Roberts said he has returned to the PNM and will keep serving burgesses, while the mayor and PNM alderman Christopher Encinas traded sharp criticism over the proposed floor-crossing bill.

The PNM says it will repeal four Government bills — on municipal corporations, special operations, alcohol/cannabis/drugs/gambling/tobacco, and public procurement — if it returns to office after the next election. Party leaders, including Penelope Beckles, Sanjiv Boodhu, Kareem Marcelle and Faris Al-Rawi, called the measures oppressive and unconstitutional, saying they could affect local elections, police oversight and public spending.

Parliament passed the Municipal Corporations (Amendment) Bill, 2026 by 27 votes to 11, as Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar said it aims to fix long-standing uneven funding and representation across Trinidad and Tobago’s local government bodies. She argued that larger UNC-led areas have been under-resourced compared with smaller PNM-run corporations, and highlighted Chaguanas’s push for city status.

Siparia Mayor Doodnath Mayrhoo said the proposed Municipal Corporations (Amendment) Bill, 2026 was prompted by councillors Jason Ali and Victor Roberts crossing from the UNC to the PNM, which changed control of the Siparia Borough Corporation. He backed the floor-crossing ban and said the bill should also address uneven local-government representation and district sizes.

The Chaguanas Chamber of Industry and Commerce has condemned Diego Martin MP Colm Imbert for calling proposed city status for Chaguanas “nonsense” in Parliament. Chamber head Baldath Maharaj said the comment insulted Central Trinidad’s residents and businesses, arguing Chaguanas already functions as a major economic hub and deserves formal city recognition.

Land and Legal Affairs Minister Saddam Hosein sharply attacked Opposition MP Colm Imbert during debate on the Municipal Corporations (Amendment) Bill, 2026, dismissing his claims of gerrymandering and defending the Government’s local government reforms. He said the changes, including proposed new boroughs and city status for Chaguanas, are meant to spread State resources more fairly across Trinidad.

Opposition MP Colm Imbert accused the Government of redrawing local government boundaries to favour UNC-held areas, calling the reforms gerrymandering and “political fraud” as Parliament debated the Municipal Corporations (Amendment) Bill, 2026. He also said the public is angry with the Government and predicted the PNM would win the next local election.

Siparia Mayor Doodnath Mayrhoo said the Government’s proposed floor-crossing rule for local government was sparked by the defections of councillor Jason Ali and alderman Victor Roberts from the UNC to the PNM. The bill would force councillors and aldermen to lose their seats if they leave the party under which they were elected, but the Opposition says the changes are politically motivated ahead of local government elections.

Laventille West MP Kareem Marcelle told the House that the Cabinet-appointed committee reviewing Trinidad’s municipal boundaries is stacked with UNC-linked figures, calling its recommendations politically biased. He said the committee’s composition raises doubts about proposed changes in the Municipal Corporations (Amendment) Bill, 2026, because boundary revisions could affect future local government elections.

Tobago West MP Joel Sampson told Parliament he believes the Elections and Boundaries Commission has worked “in cahoots” with the PNM, citing past Tobago boundary changes and the move from 12 to 15 THA seats. Opposition MP Stuart Young dismissed the claim as “complete rubbish” and said the EBC had no role in the municipal boundary bill now before Parliament.

Minister of Land and Legal Affairs Saddam Hosein accused the PNM of past gerrymandering, saying it merged municipal corporations to gain political advantage when the number was cut from 19 to 14. He backed the Municipal Corporations (Amendment) Bill, 2026, including proposals to make Chaguanas a city and Barataria a borough, arguing current boundaries are not based on population or fairness.

Opposition MPs Colm Imbert and Kareem Marcelle have accused the UNC Government of using the Municipal Corporations (Amendment) Bill, 2026 to redraw local government boundaries in its favour before the next election, due in 2027. They called the changes “gerrymandering” and warned that creating new corporations and districts could strain funding, staffing and administration.

PNM MPs say the Government’s plan to expand municipal corporations from 14 to 17, including new areas at Barataria, St Augustine and Couva, is a bid to redraw local government boundaries in the UNC’s favour before elections. Local Government Minister Khadijah Ameen rejected that claim, saying the changes are meant to improve fairness and reflect population shifts.

Opposition Leader Pennelope Beckles has accused the Government of trying to gerrymander Trinidad and Tobago’s local government system through a bill to create new boroughs in Barataria, St Augustine and Couva, all UNC-held areas. She says the changes could weaken PNM-controlled corporations, raise funding concerns, and increase party control over local democracy.

Opposition Leader Penelope Beckles accused the Government of trying to tilt local government elections by redrawing municipal boundaries and creating three new boroughs in UNC strongholds while shrinking some PNM-controlled areas. The Municipal Corporations Amendment Bill 2026 would also change alderman rules and could reshape councils in Chaguanas, Couva, St Augustine, Barataria, Port of Spain, San Fernando and Point Fortin ahead of the August 2027 polls.