PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad (CMC) – Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Stuart Young Monday said he is encouraged by the long lines at polling stations saying it underscores the fact that voters are taking their democratic rights to elect a government very seriously.

Young, 50, who is leading the incumbent People’s National Movement (PNM) into the general election he called four months ahead of the second anniversary of the PNM’s consecutive victory in the 2020 polls, said that “the outcome of tonight and the victory…is important for the country.”

“The party that wins and succeeds, it will also be important for that party. I expect that we will continue in governance and I look forward to it. It has been a hard campaign, a short campaign,” said Young, who has been the parliamentary representative for the Port-of-Spain North/St. Ann’s West constituency since 2015.

“I am quite satisfied that the team has put forward all our plans for Trinidad and Tobago,” Young said, telling reporters after casting his vote that the electorate has that before them “and we wait and see, the process has started.

“The PNM’s campaign was quite a good one, I am satisfied and very pleased with it, very informative. We ran a clean campaign I am satisfied we put forward the necessary advocacy to the population. We touched on all of the points that needed to be touched on and there is a lot of hope…and I am looking forward to having the opportunity to fulfil a mandate given to me by the people and then putting these plans into action”.

“My plans for tomorrow are to …continue planning what is needed to build Trinidad and Tobago,” he told reporters, adding that the feedback from the PNM machinery is “similar to what I have experienced this morning.

“By and large everything seems to be going well,” Young said, brushing aside a statement by the main opposition United National Congress (UNC) calling for a Commission of Inquiry into the operations of the Elections and Boundaries Commission (EBC).

“My response to that is since 2025 you have been seeing the behaviour of the opposition and what I suspect that is, is trying to line themselves up with an excuse and head to the courts with an election petition, which has become, unfortunately, the opposition’s modus operandi.

“It is quite unfortunate that we see these continuous attacks even when we are not in an election season by the UNC on an independent body like the EBC. So let’s see what happens,” Young said.

Young said he is also awaiting the report of the observer missions on the elections, telling reporters “I am quite satisfied we have always had free and fair independent elections in Trinidad and Tobago and I can tell you the PNM will always defend that process.

The UNC has sent at least six letters to the EBC on Monday complaining about various matters regarding the polls.

In one of the letters, the UNC complains of “extreme delay in the voting process and long lines” in the crucial marginal seat of Barataria/San Juan.