Jesse Ramdeo

Se­nior Re­porter

jesse.ramdeo@cnc3.co.tt

A for­mer coun­cil­lor with the PNM, an ex-UNC Youth Arm mem­ber, and a for­mer co­or­di­na­tor with the THA are all among the sev­en can­di­dates cho­sen by the Pa­tri­ot­ic Front to con­test seats in the up­com­ing gen­er­al elec­tion.

The par­ty, led by Mick­ela Pan­day—the daugh­ter of the late for­mer prime min­is­ter Bas­deo Pan­day—has been fi­nal­is­ing the list of can­di­dates and com­plet­ing the screen­ing process.

So far, sev­en can­di­dates have been named.

On Mon­day, the par­ty un­veiled the suc­cess­ful can­di­dates by up­load­ing their bios on its web­site.

Thel­ston Ja­goo, a for­mer mem­ber of the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress’ Na­tion­al Youth Arm, is the par­ty’s pick for Clax­ton Bay.

Ja­goo not­ed, “Over the past 15 years, our na­tion’s pol­i­tics has reached an all-time low. True progress can on­ly come when a na­tion unites to build a brighter fu­ture to­geth­er. At this cru­cial mo­ment in our his­to­ry, we need lead­er­ship that can bring peo­ple of all back­grounds to­geth­er—lead­ers who in­spire uni­ty and col­lec­tive ac­tion.”

Ani­ta Han­key, a hold­er of a Mas­ter of Sci­ence in Telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions Reg­u­la­tion and Pol­i­cy, has been giv­en the nod to con­test the con­stituen­cy of Mal­abar/Mau­si­ca.

“I am ready to take my ser­vice to the next lev­el as a can­di­date for the Pa­tri­ot­ic Front. I be­lieve in pro­gres­sive gov­er­nance, in­clu­siv­i­ty, and trans­for­ma­tion­al lead­er­ship,” she said.

So­cial work­er Sacha Man­groo will do bat­tle for the Princes Town seat, which is cur­rent­ly held by the UNC’s Bar­ry Padarath. Last Fri­day, Padarath pre­sent­ed him­self be­fore the UNC’s screen­ing com­mit­tee and is tipped to re­tain his post.

The Pa­tri­ot­ic Front’s San Fer­nan­do East pick is Ken­rick Ser­rette. He will ri­val in­cum­bent Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment MP Bri­an Man­ning, who was se­lect­ed by the par­ty’s screen­ing com­mit­tee.

Va­lene Teelucks­ingh, a se­nior lo­gis­tics co­or­di­na­tor, will chal­lenge for Cu­mu­to/Man­zanil­la, while Eliz­a­beth Whar­ton will rep­re­sent the par­ty at the polls for To­co/San­gre Grande.

Whar­ton, who pre­vi­ous­ly served as a lo­cal gov­ern­ment coun­cil­lor with the PNM, said she was com­mit­ted to “re­al change” in the area.

“The Pa­tri­ot­ic Front’s vi­sion of equal­i­ty and ser­vice un­der the lead­er­ship of Ms. Mick­ela Pan­day re­in­forces my un­wa­ver­ing com­mit­ment to putting peo­ple first,” Whar­ton said.

The par­ty has al­so se­lect­ed Aretha Clarke, who served as a pro­gramme co­or­di­na­tor with the To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly, for the seat of To­ba­go West.

Clarke said, “The Pa­tri­ot­ic Front’s mis­sion to fos­ter growth and de­vel­op­ment aligns with my com­mit­ment to em­pow­er­ing To­bag­o­ni­ans. Their grass­roots ap­proach to gov­er­nance and fo­cus on cit­i­zen par­tic­i­pa­tion res­onate with my vi­sion of a stronger, more unit­ed na­tion.”

The Pa­tri­ot­ic Front has sig­naled its in­ten­tion to con­test all 41 seats in this year’s gen­er­al elec­tion.