The party received the second-highest number of votes in the 1981 general elections, but failed to win a seat.
Hudson-Phillips went on to form the 'National Land Tenants and Ratepayers Association of Trinidad and Tobago in 1974, a right-of-centre body.
[1] This setback led to the ONR forging a closer relationship with the other opposition parties, which had organised themselves as the National Alliance prior to the elections.
This was the first time since 1959 that the PNM had not won the majority of seats contested in any election in Trinidad (the DAC had taken control of the Tobago House of Assembly in 1980).
After the NAR folded, many former ONR members joined the United National Congress, while others returned to the PNM.