With few­er than two weeks un­til nom­i­na­tion day, the Hon­esty, Op­por­tu­ni­ty, Per­for­mance and Em­pow­er­ment (HOPE) po­lit­i­cal par­ty has with­drawn from the Gen­er­al Elec­tion, cit­ing an in­abil­i­ty to gain the nec­es­sary sup­port to mount a com­pet­i­tive cam­paign.

In a state­ment yes­ter­day, HOPE Po­lit­i­cal Leader Tim­o­thy Hamel-Smith ex­pressed pro­found dis­ap­point­ment over the de­ci­sion but ac­knowl­edged that de­spite five years of en­gag­ing with com­mu­ni­ties across the coun­try, it could not es­tab­lish a vi­able path to vic­to­ry.

“Over the last five years, we have vis­it­ed com­mu­ni­ties through­out Trinidad and To­ba­go and shared our vi­sion for a bet­ter Trinidad and To­ba­go for our cit­i­zens. To­day, two weeks be­fore nom­i­na­tion day, we have not gar­nered the mo­men­tum and sup­port nec­es­sary to carve out a winnable space for HOPE in the up­com­ing gen­er­al elec­tion. Con­se­quent­ly, we have de­cid­ed to with­draw from the 2025 elec­tion cam­paign,” the re­lease said.