Ask the EBC

If you had a deed poll administered prior to getting married and did not present it to our registration office to change your name on your ID card then you would be required to produce the document together with your marriage certificate and your present ID card in order to get your name changed. However, the existing deed poll would have renounced the use of the name on the present ID card and the marriage certificate should have your name according to the deed poll, if not, then you will be required to apply for a new deed poll.

Time Off for voting as stipulated in the Representation of the People Act, Chapter 2: 01 Laws of Trinidad and Tobago is as follows:

Section 36 (2) - “Every employer shall on polling day allow every elector in his employ the prescribed period for voting and no employer shall make any deductions from the pay or other remuneration of any such elector or impose upon or exact from him any penalty by reason of his absence during that period.”

Additionally, Election Rule 28 states that “Every employer shall permit each elector in his employment to be absent from his work on polling day during the hours of the poll for two hours in addition to normal mid-day meal” and;

Section 93 also goes further to indicate that, “An employer who fails to comply with any of the provisions of Section 36(2) and any person who directly or indirectly by intimidation, undue influence, or in any other way interferes with the granting to an elector of the prescribed period for voting referred to in that subsection is liable on summary conviction to a fine of thirty thousand dollars ($30,000.00) or to imprisonment for twelve months”.

Identification Card (ID card) can only be renewed from two (2) months before its expiration date. No, the registrant must visit the Registration Area Office in which he/ she lives.

Registration Rule 14(6) of the Representation of the People Act, Chapter 2:01 inter alia states:

"A person to whom a completed identification card is being delivered shall read it and sign it in the presence of the registration officer, or any other authorised officer if he is satisfied that the contents are correct".

N.B: Persons who are in possession of a Power of Attorney or Letters of Authorization are prohibited from the collection of the registrant’s identification card.

For registration a person is required to have a T&T Birth Certificate, a valid Passport, and a Marriage Certificate, if applicable. For the children the requirements are, Birth Certificate, Naturalization Certificate/ Passport.

Email us your questions at askebc@ebctt.com.

In order to apply for a National Identification Card, you must be a citizen or resident of Trinidad and Tobago. CARICOM citizens who currently work in Trinidad and Tobago and wish to apply for residential status must first visit the Immigration Department and submit an application to this effect. Once successful, and the residential certificate has been obtained you will then be able to apply for an Identification Card at the EBC’s Registration Area Office. These persons are also required to bring along their birth certificate and requisite travel documents for registration.

Once a registrant recognizes that his/her Identification Card has either been misplaced stolen or destroyed, the EBC requires that person first make a formal report to the Police. The registrant will then be required by law to do a Statutory Declaration [Representation of the People Act, Chapter, 2:01- Registration Rule 47 (b)] in the form of a sworn affidavits by a Justice of the Peace.

There shall be payable for every replacement identification card-

10. In the case of the first issue, ten dollars ($10.00)
11. In the case of any other further issue, twenty dollars ($20.00)

You can still use your current Identification Card to conduct business, however we do advise that you visit your registration area office at a convenient time to have your registration record updated. Failure do such, can result in inaccurate information published by the EBC on its list of qualified electors.

It is recommended that the number of electors at any given Polling Station has a maximum of 750 persons.

In accordance with the advice from the office of the Registrar General, an affidavit can only be used to provide details which does not appear on the Birth Certificate, such as, to add a name or correct spelling errors in the mother’s,   fathers or child’s name. However, a Deed Poll will be required to change the order of the given name/s recorded on the birth certificate.

A Deed Poll for a change of name contains three declarations and by executing the Deed Poll (signing, dating and having your signing witnessed) you are legally committing yourself to:

• Abandoning the use of your former name;
• Using your new name only at all time;
• Requires that all persons address you by your new name only

In summary, a Deed Poll issued will provide you with documentary evidence that you have changed your name, enabling you to get all your official documents and records changed to your new name.

Previously issued computer generated certificate or polymer certificate are both valid for registration and can therefore be used to apply for an ID card.

You can apply for Special Elector status to the Elections and Boundaries Commission. Once your application has been approved you will then be able to vote at one of the Special Polling Stations established by the EBC before polling day.

Arrangements can be made to have these persons registered. We require that you first contact the Registration Area Office via written correspondence and an officer will then visit the home to determine the status of the individuals. After which, if the requirements are met they will be registered at the home and their ID cards will be subsequently delivered to them when the transaction is completed. This facility also applies to anyone who is physically incapacitated and is unable to visit the registration offices to conduct business. Once the request is made to the designated Registration Area Office, it will be taken into consideration.

For a listing of our Registration Area Offices please check the EBC’s website.

You are required to produce you computerized birth certificate, marriage certificate (if applicable) and passport. Before applying to the EBC though, you must first visit the Immigration Office (Landing Status Section) with you naturalization certificate to either apply for a Trinidad and Tobago Passport or to have the Immigration Officer stamp your passport with the required validation stamp - [Section 4(1)] attesting to you being a citizen of Trinidad and Tobago.

Section 4(1) of the Immigration Act, Chapter 18:01 states, “A citizen of Trinidad and Tobago has the right to be admitted in Trinidad and Tobago”.

The registrants should visit the Registration Area Office in their district as in accordance with Registration Rules 41 (11)3 of the Representation of the People Act, Chapter 2: 01 Laws of Trinidad and Tobago – “Not resident in Trinidad and Tobago for the required period” - and inform the Registration Officer, who would then verify the information and take the necessary follow-up action. The registrants are also required to bring along their passports to substantiate their claims.

A person who is a citizen of Trinidad and Tobago of the age of eighteen years or upwards is qualified to vote at an election once he/she has resided in that electoral district for at least two (2) months preceding the ‘Qualifying Date’, which is the 9^th day after the date fixed for the commencement of electoral registration. As such, all registrants must meet the qualifying criteria to be an elector on or before this date. You would turned have turned 18 years after the qualifying date, hence the reason you were not eligible to vote.

If you are applying for your first National ID card and your parents were unmarried at the time of your birth you can have both their surnames placed on your card as your surname, provided that you can show proof that either;

(1) you have used the name throughout your school life by way of a letter from the school or examination certificate (s) or

(2) show other form of ID such as a Passport.

However if you already are in possession of a valid National ID card under either parents surname but you wish to now carry both surnames on your ID , a Protocol of Deed or Deed Poll is required .

All applications for persons who are desirous of registering their motor vehicles as electoral vehicles must be sent directly to the Police for consideration. Applications are to be written and should be submitted as set out in accordance with the Representation of the People Act, Chapter 2: 01 – 38(1),"At any time between nomination day and the fifth day next before polling day any duly nominated candidate or the election agent of the candidate may by notice in writing require the appropriate police officer to register as electoral vehicle on behalf of the candidate".

Because your place of residence was not in Trinidad and Tobago, it is likely that your registration would have been cancelled. You are therefore required to visit the Registration Area Office in your district with your birth certificate and Passport to be re- registered. Furthermore, to be qualified as an elector for an electoral district you must have resided in that electoral district for a period of at least  two (2) months preceding the qualifying date.

As required by law, whenever a person is registered at the EBC for their identification card that registration must be verified by a field investigation in order to ascertain that the information given is accurate. After the verification of information is completed the registration will then be sent for printing and laminating.

Once this process is over, the Identification cards will finally be sent to the respective Registration Area Office for delivery. Therefore an identification card would normally take longer than a Driver’s Permit because of the various processes outlined.

We advise that you renew your ID card before the expiration date, the EBC requires that all ID cards be renewed at least two (2) before their expiration date. In addition,   we also recommend that when you have re-located to your new address and have resided there for at least two (2) months that you return to the Registration Area Office and inform them about your change of address. Thereafter, steps will be taken to have your registration records updated.

Yes you can apply for your national identification card. However you must provide the legal adoption certificate issued by the Ministry of Legal Affairs which would contain information as to your birth date, country of birth, name and your adoptive parents or parents’ name. There is therefore no need to produce a birth certificate. Please note however that a legal custody or legal guardianship order cannot be accepted.

It must be noted that during an Electoral Registration Period persons wishing to register or regularize their voting status in order to vote at an Elections must be qualified to do so according to the Representation of the People's Act Chapter 2:01 Section 13 subsection 1(a) to (e)and in particular subsection(d) which states “that a person is qualified to be an elector for an electoral district at a municipal council election who has resided for a period of at least two months immediately preceding the qualifying date in that electoral district.....”
(The qualifying date is the 9th date after the fixed date of commencement of electoral registration). Generally this is the reason why persons might be turned away from registering.

Identification cards issued by the EBC can either be blue, red or orange in colour based on the citizenship of the registrant.

Registration Rule 14 (3) of the Representation of the People Act, Chapter 2:01 states:

"The print on an identification card in the Form set out as Form No. 11A in the Prescribed Forms Rules issued -

1. to a citizen of Trinidad and Tobago, whether an elector or

not, shall be in the colour blue; 

1. to a Commonwealth citizen other than a citizen of Trinidad

and Tobago, whether an elector or not, shall be in the

colour red; 

1. to a person other than those described in paragraph (a) or

paragraph (b), shall be in the colour orange."

Yes you can apply for a national identification card. However, you must not only provide your Australian birth certificate but also your marriage certificate and divorce decree absolute. Most importantly, you must produce your Certificate of Citizenship or Residence granted by the Ministry of National Security of Trinidad and Tobago.

The status of Citizenship or Residence would have been granted as a result of marriage to a Trinidad and Tobago national, provided an application was made. However if you were divorced before acquiring citizenship or residence status you will be ineligible to apply.

The EBC can assist by doing a home visit in which we would take the photo, signature or thumb-print of your brother. However, his original Birth Certificate (computer generated or polymer printed) and an affidavit if necessary must be produced in order to apply for the identification card. You, as his sibling/relative should be able to visit the Ministry of Legal Affairs to apply for his birth certificate. If necessary, the EBC can issue a letter addressed to the said department on behalf of your brother stating that the birth certificate is needed in order to process his National Identification Card.

When you applied to have your ID card replaced you would have sworn to a Statutory Declaration stating your ID card was lost. A new ID card was produced with a new date of issue and as such, you are therefore required to surrender your first ID card to the Registration Officer.          

Election Rule 23(2) of the Representation of the People Act, Chapter 2:01 states as follows:                                   

“On the application of any political party desirous of using at an election the same symbol for all its candidates at the election (in these Rules referred to as “the party symbol”), which application shall be made not later than three days after the publication of the election notice for the election, the Commission may assign to such party the party symbol so applied for, and the symbol shall thereupon become the party symbol of the party for the election and all subsequent elections, unless and until, on application made as above, another party symbol is assigned to the political party.” 

Therefore, any application for assignment of a symbol must be made in accordance with the timeframe established in the above quoted rule.

Yes, you would be able to renew your national identification card during your visit. However you must visit the Registration Office where you had applied for your present card and where your registration record is lodged.

Please note you are only required to produce your expired identification card. If however corrections are to be made on the card as regards to name and or date of birth, you will be required to visit the registration office with your birth certificate, marriage certificate (if applicable) and passport. The registration officer will check your documents and subsequently advise whether any additional documents will be required in order to make the desired changes

The Elections and Boundaries Commission (EBC) does not register political parties, it assigns party symbols.

Election Rule 23(2) of the Representation of the People Act, Chapter 2:01 states as follows:

"On the application of any political party desirous of using at an election the same symbol for all its candidates at the election (in these Rules referred to as “the party symbol”), which application shall be made not later than three days after the publication of the election notice for the election, the Commission may assign to such party the party symbol so applied for, and the symbol shall thereupon become the party symbol of the party for the election and all subsequent elections, unless and until, on application made as above, another party symbol is assigned to the political party."

When applying for the use of a symbol, the Political Leader or a Senior Member in the party must submit a signed correspondence (hardcopy) to either the Chairman or Chief Election Officer of the EBC for consideration.

The application must contain:

• The name of the party and acronym (if any)
• The name of the symbol
• A brief description of the symbol
• A copy (drawing) of the symbol on a separate page
• Contact information