Electoral Tie Poses Constitutional Quandary

The nation’s first prime minister of East Indian descent and the black-dominated opposition scrambled to make sense of their election outcome: a tie.

Preliminary results indicated that Prime Minister Basdeo Panday’s ruling United National Congress and the People’s National Movement of former Prime Minister Patrick Manning had each won 18 seats in the lower house of Parliament.

Trinidad and Tobago’s Constitution states that the president may appoint a prime minister who he thinks would command a majority. It doesn’t specify the course of action in the case of a tie.