The president, the largely ceremonial head of state, is elected to a five-year term by a majority in the combined houses of Parliament. Christine Kangaloo assumed the office of president in March 2023. The fact that she was also a senator and president of the Senate at the time of her nomination caused controversy, as the presidency is usually filled by an apolitical figure.

The prime minister, who serves as head of government and is typically the leader of the majority party in Parliament, is appointed by the president. Keith Rowley became prime minister in 2015 and continued to serve in the position after the 2020 parliamentary elections.

Parliament consists of the directly elected 41-member House of Representatives and the 31-member Senate, with members of both houses serving five-year terms. Of the 31 senators, 16 are appointed on the advice of the prime minister, 6 are appointed on the advice of the opposition leader, and 9 are appointed at the president’s discretion based on merit.

In the 2020 parliamentary elections, the incumbent PNM won 49 percent of the vote and 22 seats. The UNC took 47 percent of the vote and 19 seats.

The semiautonomous island of Tobago has its own House of Assembly (THA). In elections held in 2021, the Progressive Democratic Patriots (PDP), a local pro-independence party, won 58 percent of the votes and 14 seats. The PNM won the remaining seat.

Local elections normally take place every three years. In May 2023, the London-based Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, Trinidad’s highest court of appeal, ruled that the government’s decision to extend local councilors’ mandates by an extra year was unlawful. Elections were held in August; nine months after initially planned. Each of the main parties, the ruling UNC and the PNM, won control of seven municipal corporations.

Electoral laws are largely fair. The Elections and Boundaries Commission (EBC) organizes elections and is generally trusted by the public to fulfill its mandate impartially. However, electoral reforms suggested by 2015 observer missions were not implemented prior to the 2020 elections.

Several political parties operate in Trinidad and Tobago. While the PNM dominated the political landscape in the decades following independence, it has weakened in recent years; the national political arena is now largely divided between the PNM and the UNC, while the December 2021 elections in Tobago marked an end to the PNM’s long-running dominance there.

Various factors, including the country’s first-past-the-post voting system, have made it difficult for less established parties to gain seats in Parliament.

Rival parties consistently transfer power peacefully, with multiple changes in government through elections since the 1980s.

People’s political choices are generally free from external pressure. However, observers have raised concerns about the lack of transparency in campaign financing, which may enable improper influence and disadvantage opposition parties.

All ethnic groups enjoy full political rights, and political parties are technically multiethnic, though the PNM is favored by Afro-Trinidadians and the UNC is affiliated with Indo-Trinidadians.

Women’s political participation has increased in recent years, though they remain generally underrepresented.

Discrimination against LGBT+ people is widespread, affecting their ability to fully engage in political and electoral processes.

Freely elected executive and legislative officeholders generally determine and implement government policies without undue interference.

Corruption remains a pervasive problem, especially within the police force and among high-ranking government officials and immigration officers. Several pieces of anticorruption legislation exist but are generally poorly enforced.

In March 2023, a US court awarded the Trinidadian government more than $100 million in damages in a fraud case related to the expansion of the Piarco International Airport. The case dated back nearly 20 years, and focused on allegations that contracts for the expansion were affected by bribes, bid rigging, and money laundering. Initially there were 56 defendants in the case, but by the time of the award only 3 remained, including a former UNC finance minister. Despite the fact that it is considered the largest corruption case in the country’s history, so far no one has been found guilty in Trinidadian courts.

Public officials are required to disclose their assets, income, and liabilities, but penalties against those who fail to comply are limited. The Integrity Commission, which is tasked with overseeing these financial disclosures, has been criticized for being ineffective. It has been hampered by limited funding and recent staffing cuts, and since its creation in 1987 it reportedly has not secured a single prosecution.

The public has the right to access government documents by law, although numerous public institutions are exempt. Furthermore, a provision that requires the government to respond to information requests within 30 days is not enforced. A 2015 law regulating public procurement was implemented in 2020, but with significant exemptions. In April 2023, a new procurement act was passed in an effort to improve the original legislation, but some exemptions remained.

Freedom of the press is constitutionally guaranteed and generally upheld in practice. Media outlets are privately owned and vigorously pluralistic. However, those regarded as most favorable to the government receive the bulk of state advertising. Under the 2013 Defamation and Libel Act, “malicious defamatory libel known to be false” is punishable by up to two years in prison as well as a fine, but prosecutions are uncommon.

Religious freedom is constitutionally guaranteed and generally honored.

Academic freedom is generally upheld.

Individuals are free to express their opinions in private conversations. The government has refrained from monitoring online communications; however, in 2019 the national police launched a Social Media Monitoring Unit charged with monitoring social networks to detect evidence of child pornography, prostitution, and human trafficking.

The constitution provides for freedom of assembly, and the government generally respects this right.

Civil society is robust, with a range of domestic and international groups operating freely.

Labor unions are well organized and politically active, though union membership has declined in recent years. Strikes are legal and occur frequently. The law contains a provision allowing the labor minister to petition the courts to end any strike deemed detrimental to national interests. Walkouts by workers considered essential, including hospital staff, firefighters, and telecommunication workers, are punishable by up to three years in prison and fines.

The judicial branch is generally independent but is subject to some political pressure and corruption.

Due process rights are constitutionally provided for but are not always upheld. Rising crime rates and institutional weakness have produced a severe backlog in the court system. Corruption in the police force, which is often linked to the illegal drugs trade, is endemic, and inefficiencies have resulted in the dismissal of some criminal cases. Intimidation of witnesses and jurors has been reported by judicial officials.

The government has struggled to address criminal violence, which is mostly linked to organized crime and drug trafficking. Parliament passed a law meant to combat criminal gang activity in 2021, but its impact has been limited.

The country recorded 576 homicides in 2023—a slight reduction from the previous year, but still the second-highest number on record. Police have been criticized for excessive use of force.

In 2022, the Privy Council ruled that the country’s mandatory imposition of the death penalty on those convicted of murder was constitutional, saying only Parliament could amend the law. No executions were carried out in 2023.

Trinidadians have reportedly sought to join the Islamic State (IS) militant group in recent years.

Despite legal protections against discrimination on various grounds, racial disparities persist, with Indo-Trinidadians accounting for a disproportionate share of the country’s economic elite. Women continue to face discrimination in employment and compensation.

Human rights groups have criticized the government’s unwillingness to address discrimination and violence against LGBT+ people. In 2018, the High Court ruled that the provisions of the Sexual Offences Act that criminalized same-sex relations were unconstitutional.

Immigration law does not adequately protect refugees, and Trinidad specifically lacks a system to process asylum claims. As many as 40,000 Venezuelan asylum seekers and refugees have entered the country in recent years, but authorities regularly seek to detain and deport these individuals. Local courts have intervened to block deportations. Officials have espoused derogatory rhetoric when discussing refugees. There are regular reports of Venezuelans drowning while attempting to reach Trinidad and Tobago.

Trinidadians were among those held by Kurdish forces in the al-Hol camp in Syria after the Islamic State lost its territorial holdings there in 2019. A Human Rights Watch report published in February 2023 found that up to 100 Trinidadians, including 21 women and 56 children, remain in Syrian camps. The report criticized the Trinidadian government for taking “almost no action to help them return.” Little progress had been made by the end of 2023, with the families of individuals in the camps saying they were “deeply troubled, and frustrated.”

Trinidadians do not face significant constraints on freedom of movement or on their ability to change their place of residence, employment, or education.

While the government actively supports investment in the country, corruption and weak state institutions can make it more difficult to start and operate businesses.

Most individual rights with respect to personal status issues like marriage and divorce are protected by law.

Rape, including spousal rape, is illegal, and domestic violence is addressed by specific legislation. However, enforcement of these provisions remains inadequate. Most missing persons are women.

Abortion is illegal in most cases, and obtaining an illegal abortion is punishable by up to four years in prison. There is reportedly little public awareness of legal exemptions that allow abortions to preserve physical or mental health.

The law provides basic protections against exploitative working conditions. Official efforts have been stepped up to combat human trafficking, but convictions are rare. The US State Department’s 2023 Trafficking in Persons Report noted that corruption and official complicity in trafficking crimes continued to be significant concerns.