Gail Alexan­der

Se­nior Po­lit­i­cal Re­porter

The PNM’s Laven­tille West ex­ec­u­tive will be rec­om­mend­ing in­cum­bent MP Fitzger­ald Hinds as its can­di­date when that con­stituen­cy comes up be­fore the PNM’s Screen­ing Com­mit­tee next Mon­day.

This was re­vealed af­ter mem­bers of the Laven­tille West ex­ec­u­tive met on the is­sue last Fri­day.

Laven­tille West will be the first con­stituen­cy to be screened on Mon­day among 14 oth­ers. On Oc­to­ber 21, the PNM called for nom­i­na­tions for 15 PNM-held con­stituen­cies.

The PNM’s Screen­ing Com­mit­tee led by po­lit­i­cal leader Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley—and in­clud­ing the par­ty’s four deputy lead­ers and four ex­ec­u­tive mem­bers—will screen nom­i­nees for those ar­eas. This will be done at the PNM’s Bal­isi­er House head of­fice in six batch­es be­gin­ning at 5 pm.

Ex­ec­u­tives of the 15 ar­eas, who have been in­ter­view­ing nom­i­nees they’ve re­ceived, can make a rec­om­men­da­tion, but ul­ti­mate­ly the de­ci­sion is up to the screen­ing team.

While the Laven­tille West con­stituen­cy ex­ec­u­tive is rec­om­mend­ing Hinds, all three nom­i­nees in­ter­est­ed in rep­re­sent­ing the area will be screened. These in­clude at­tor­ney/Port-of-Spain Cor­po­ra­tion al­der­man Ka­reem Mar­celle and Dr Kadelle Jes­samy.

Hinds has sup­port from par­ty groups as well as the Laven­tille West’s Youth League. Mar­celle has sup­port from par­ty groups and the unit’s Women’s League. Jes­samy was nom­i­nat­ed by a par­ty group.

Con­stituen­cy of­fi­cials told Guardian Me­dia that in­cum­bent Hinds is be­ing rec­om­mend­ed since he has been serv­ing the area, pro­vides ed­u­ca­tion­al as­sis­tance and opens his of­fice to all who want to learn and study. “When he comes to the con­stituen­cy of­fice on Tues­days, he’s there right through and doesn’t leave til 9 pm, some­times. It’s a lot of work—peo­ple don’t know how much. So we have con­fi­dence in him,” said of­fi­cials.

The La Brea con­stituen­cy ex­ec­u­tive will rec­om­mend Siparia cor­po­ra­tion al­der­man Christo­pher Enci­nas as its nom­i­nee. He was the ex­ec­u­tive’s choice when the unit met last Sat­ur­day. Enci­nas re­ceived 17 votes from the ex­ec­u­tive while in­cum­bent MP Stephen Mc Clashie got two, mem­bers of the ex­ec­u­tive said. Both will go be­fore the screen­ing team as well as Ves­signy/Brighton coun­cil­lor Jil­lon Lewis who was nom­i­nat­ed by a par­ty group.

St Ann’s East ex­ec­u­tive meets lat­er this week on its rec­om­men­da­tion. Of­fi­cials said the in­cum­bent MP Dr Nyan Gads­by-Dol­ly has the ma­jor­i­ty of par­ty group sup­port over nom­i­nee Lyn­don Lara.

San Fer­nan­do East’s ex­ec­u­tive hasn’t yet met on its rec­om­men­da­tion. Of­fi­cials said the unit will “ob­vi­ous­ly” sup­port in­cum­bent MP Bri­an Man­ning. Co­coyea/Tarou­ba coun­cil­lor Tere­sa Lynch is al­so seek­ing to be the can­di­date. In the 2020 gen­er­al elec­tion, Man­ning won the seat which his fa­ther, for­mer PNM leader and prime min­is­ter Patrick Man­ning, set a record for rep­re­sent­ing since win­ning it in 1971.

Arou­ca/Mal­oney’s unit meets Thurs­day to con­sid­er nom­i­na­tions re­ceived for MP Camille Robin­son-Reg­is and one-time MP Ali­cia Hospedales who’s al­so seek­ing the can­di­da­cy.

Tu­na­puna’s con­stituen­cy ex­ec­u­tive was meet­ing on its rec­om­men­da­tion out of four nom­i­nees: in­cum­bent MP Es­mond Forde, TTPost chair­man Dr Michael Seales, Air­port Au­thor­i­ty’s Don Isaac and busi­ness­woman Kris­tle Hor­wood. The ex­ec­u­tive in­ter­viewed them three weeks ago.