OT­TO CAR­RING­TON

Se­nior Re­porter

ot­to.car­ring­ton@cnc3.co.tt

The Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment’s (PNM) Diego Mar­tin West con­stituen­cy ex­ec­u­tive has not yet re­ceived any of­fi­cial nom­i­na­tions from the par­ty mem­ber­ship for the seat. How­ev­er, con­stituents are anx­ious to know who are the top con­tenders hop­ing to rep­re­sent their in­ter­ests.

This fol­lows Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley’s an­nounce­ment of his de­ci­sion not to seek re-elec­tion in the up­com­ing gen­er­al elec­tions, mark­ing the end of an era for a man who has rep­re­sent­ed the con­stituen­cy since 1991.

Guardian Me­dia un­der­stands that three peo­ple have shown in­ter­est in con­test­ing the seat for the PNM in the con­stituen­cy, among them Min­is­ter of For­eign Af­fairs Dr Amery Browne.

Speak­ing to Guardian Me­dia yes­ter­day, Diego Mar­tin West con­stituen­cy chair­man Jack­ie Lazarus con­firmed that no nom­i­na­tions had yet been sub­mit­ted by any of the par­ty groups in the con­stituen­cy.

“Well, I am wait­ing for the par­ty groups. You know, our process is that the par­ty groups hold meet­ings and nom­i­nate prospec­tive can­di­dates. Then they send those nom­i­na­tions to the con­stituen­cy ex­ec­u­tive for con­sid­er­a­tion. Prospec­tive can­di­dates are ei­ther short­list­ed or all are for­ward­ed to the na­tion­al screen­ing com­mit­tee for se­lec­tion. We have re­ceived no of­fi­cial nom­i­na­tion forms from par­ty groups as yet,” she said.

How­ev­er, a con­sent of nom­i­na­tion let­ter dat­ed Jan­u­ary 10 de­tailed Browne’s in­ter­est in con­test­ing the seat for the PNM.
Yes­ter­day, he con­firmed this with a post on so­cial me­dia, say­ing, “I will do my part to say ‘All Hands on Deck’ for team T&T and Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment with our young and en­er­getic fu­ture.”

On the ground in the Diego Mar­tin West con­stituen­cy, some res­i­dents were a bit anx­ious to know if Browne would be se­lect­ed as the can­di­date, while oth­ers were less en­thused about pol­i­tics.

One res­i­dent told Guardian Me­dia, “I am not in­volved in pol­i­tics but who­ev­er comes here, I’m not sure it will re­al­ly make a dif­fer­ence to the hard­ships that many, es­pe­cial­ly in the Care­nage area, face.”

In La Puer­ta, re­tiree El­ton Corbin ex­pressed un­wa­ver­ing loy­al­ty to the PNM.

“If the PNM put him there, I will vote for him. Even if they put a cra­paud, I will vote for him.”

Con­stituent Ted May­nard was in sup­port of Browne.

“He is a good per­son. There are no com­plaints about him at all. He is very good.”

Win­field Cas­simy, a Care­nage res­i­dent, said, “I think if we get a change, it would be bet­ter. Put younger heads in charge be­cause the old­er heads are stuck on one pro­gramme. A lit­tle change would be bet­ter.”

An­oth­er con­stituent, who re­cent­ly re­turned to Trinidad and To­ba­go from the Unit­ed States and did not want their name pub­lished, had a dif­fer­ent take on the is­sue.

“Dr Row­ley is step­ping down, and Dr Browne is run­ning for of­fice. Po­lit­i­cal­ly, my con­cern is when the mass­es will have a gen­er­al eco­nom­ic op­por­tu­ni­ty. We don’t see enough dis­cus­sions in Trinidad and To­ba­go about glob­al eco­nom­ics, and that’s my po­si­tion.”