The president, the largely ceremonial head of state, is elected to a five-year term by a majority in the combined houses of Parliament. Paula-Mae Weekes, an independent former judge, was elected unopposed in 2018.

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, after that year’s parliamentary elections resulted in a victory for his party, the center-right PNM (People’s National Movement). Rowley and the PNM retained power in 2020.

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 United National Congress (UNC) took 47 percent of the vote and 19 seats.

The semiautonomous island of Tobago has its own House of Assembly (THA), with 15 members elected directly, 3 members appointed on the advice of the chief secretary (the island’s head of government), and 1 appointed on the advice of the minority leader. In elections held in December 2021, the Progressive Democratic Patriots (PDP), a local proindependence party, won 58 percent of the votes and 14 seats. The PNM won the remaining seat.

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 went unimplemented ahead of 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 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. The speaker of the House of Representatives and 10 of the body’s 41 members are women. In 2018, Paula-Mae Weekes became the first woman to be elected president. In 2021, Tracy Davidson-Celestine of the PNM became the first female party leader in Tobago.

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 2019, former attorney general Anand Ramlogan and former senator Gerald Ramdeen, both of the UNC, were arrested on suspicion of money laundering. However, the charges against both men were dropped in October 2022. At the time the charges were dropped, the key witness in the case was pursuing a civil case against the government. The civil case was based on the witness’s claims that former PNM attorney general Faris Al-Rawi had offered him an indemnity agreement before he agreed to implicate Ramlogan and Ramdeen, but that the agreement was later breached.

Other alleged cases of official corruption and mismanagement emerged in 2022, including wide-scale fraud in the Ministry of Social Development and Family Services, which allegedly involved the misuse of state grants; and in the Ministry of Agriculture, Land, and Fisheries, which came under investigation following allegations of illegal land transactions. Additionally, both public and private sector stakeholders, including the police and security experts, have expressed concern about corruption in the Customs and Excise Division, which is under the control of the Ministry of Finance, and the division’s possible role in facilitating the illegal gun trade.

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.

The public has the right to access government documents by law, although numerous public institutions are exempt. Furthermore, there is no enforcement of a provision that requires the government to respond to information requests within 30 days. A 2015 law regulating public procurements was implemented in 2020, but with significant exemptions.

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. COVID-19-related measures that had placed limits on the size and length of public gatherings were lifted in April 2022.

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. The US State Department issued a travel advisory for Port of Spain, Trinidad’s capital, in October 2022, due to the high rates of violent crime in the city. Parliament passed a law meant to combat criminal gang activity in 2021, but its impact has been limited. In August 2022, the Trinidadian government called the illegal flow of arms and ammunition into the country the greatest threat to its national security.

The country recorded 601 murders in 2022—an all-time record. The 2021 figure was 448. Police have been criticized for excessive use of force. According to a Police Complaints Authority (PCA) report submitted to Parliament in November 2022, between October 2020 and September 2021, 115 police officers were implicated in murders, fatal shootings, and nonfatal shootings.

In May 2022, the London-based Privy Council, Trinidad and Tobago’s final court of appeal, ruled that the country’s mandatory imposition of the death penalty on those convicted of murder was constitutional, further saying that according to the constitution, only Parliament can amend the law. No executions were carried out during 2022.

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. However, in 2018, the High Court ruled that the provisions of the Sexual Offences Act that criminalized same-sex relations were unconstitutional. The government vowed to appeal that ruling to the Privy Council; the case remains pending.

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 as illegal immigrants. Local courts have intervened to block deportations. Officials have espoused derogatory rhetoric when discussing refugees. There are regular reports of Venezuelans drowning en route to Trinidad and Tobago.

Trinidadians were among those held by Kurdish forces in the al-Hol camp in Syria after IS lost its territorial holdings there in 2019. Some 24 women and 74 children reportedly remain in Syrian camps as of August 2022. Efforts to repatriate those in the camps back to Trinidad are ongoing.

Trinidadians and Tobagonians 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. Other forms of gender-based violence also occur: local media outlets reported that 57 women and girls were murdered in 2022. Most missing persons are women.

Abortion is illegal in most cases, and there is reportedly little public awareness of legal exemptions for abortions to save a woman’s life or preserve her physical or mental health. A woman can be imprisoned for up to four years for obtaining an illegal abortion.

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 2022 Trafficking in Persons Report noted that corruption and official complicity in trafficking crimes continue to be significant concerns.