Be­fore every gen­er­al elec­tion, com­pet­ing par­ties hop­ing to form the next gov­ern­ment present man­i­festos out­lin­ing their goals and plans if elect­ed. Did the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) ful­fil its am­bi­tious promis­es from the 2020 gen­er­al elec­tion? A clos­er look at their man­i­festo re­veals a mix of achieve­ments and un­met goals. With the next gen­er­al elec­tion im­mi­nent, the Guardian Me­dia In­ves­ti­ga­tions Desk delves in­to the roadmap the rul­ing PNM pre­sent­ed to the pop­u­la­tion ten years ago, ex­am­in­ing the mea­sur­able goals and ac­com­plish­ments dur­ing their tenure.

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia In­ves­tiga­tive Jour­nal­ist

Lead­ing up to the Au­gust 10, 2020 gen­er­al elec­tion, the in­cum­bent Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment par­ty pre­sent­ed its man­i­festo, “The Way For­ward.” As the win­ning man­i­festo, it was the doc­u­ment to guide gov­ern­ment pol­i­cy over the PNM’s next five years in of­fice. The man­i­festo had 12 sub-cat­e­gories list­ed. Those ex­am­ined: To­ba­go, Cre­ative and Cul­tur­al In­dus­tries, Sup­port­ing Vul­ner­a­ble Groups, En­er­gy, Sports Tourism, Di­ver­si­fi­ca­tion, Man­u­fac­tur­ing, Hous­ing, Pro­cure­ment, Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty, Works and Trans­port, and Cre­at­ing a Dig­i­tal So­ci­ety. How­ev­er, agri­cul­ture was not ex­am­ined be­cause the cat­e­go­ry did not list spe­cif­ic, mea­sur­able goals.