Trinidad and Tobago, a member of the British Commonwealth, achieved independence in 1962.
Executive authority remains vested in the prime minister.
In July 1991, a radical black Muslim group briefly seized parliament. Tensions increased between black and East Indian communities, each roughly 40 percent of the population, as the latter edged towards numeric, and thus political, advantage. In December, Patrick Manning led the PNM to victory by taking 21 of 36 parliamentary seats. Manning s government deregulated the economy and floated the currency, but the social costs of these economic reforms caused the PNM s popularity to decline. Manning called snap elections for November 6, 1995.