Tourism, Cul­ture and the Arts Min­is­ter Ran­dall Mitchell has been cho­sen as the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment’s (PNM) can­di­date for La Brea in the up­com­ing gen­er­al elec­tion. He got the nod over La Brea con­stituen­cy chair­man Jer­mel Pierre, 32, fol­low­ing a screen­ing ex­er­cise at Bal­isi­er House, Port-of-Spain, last night.

In De­cem­ber, the PNM re­ject­ed in­cum­bent MP Stephen Mc­Clashie and Brighton/Ves­signy coun­cil­lor Jil­lon Lewis for the seat and the ex­ec­u­tive was in­struct­ed to seek new can­di­dates to be screened.

This time around, Mitchell and Pierre faced the screen­ing team, head­ed by Prime Min­is­ter and PNM leader Dr Kei­th Row­ley, which re­sult­ed in a hap­py end­ing for the sen­a­tor and for­mer PNM MP.

Speak­ing af­ter his nom­i­na­tion, Mitchell said, “It is a priv­i­lege. It is a hum­bling ex­pe­ri­ence. When you’re in pub­lic life, it’s all about ser­vice to peo­ple. I’ve put my­self for­ward to the con­stituen­cy of La Brea and they’ve ac­cept­ed me. They wel­comed me with open arms, and I com­mit to­day to do my best to serve the con­stituen­cy of La Brea.”

A con­fi­dent Mitchell said he plans to head back to the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives, as he be­lieves the PNM will win the seat at the polls.

While Mitchell’s sup­port­ers danced and cel­e­brat­ed, a larg­er crowd of Pierre’s sup­port­ers were left dis­ap­point­ed at the screen­ing com­mit­tee’s choice.

Some con­stituents point­ed out that Mitchell is not from La Brea and felt he would ne­glect their con­cerns.

Mitchell is from Co­coyea Vil­lage, San Fer­nan­do, and re­placed the late for­mer prime min­is­ter Patrick Man­ning as MP for San Fer­nan­do East in 2015.

Re­spond­ing to that crit­i­cism, Mitchell said, “I have con­nec­tions to La Brea, and it is not about be­ing born and bred but it is about ser­vice. It is about rep­re­sen­ta­tion, be­cause be­ing born and bred some­where does not mean that you can ac­quit your­self well with re­spect to rep­re­sen­ta­tion and I com­mit to­day to my best to rep­re­sent peo­ple.”

Asked about how he would ad­dress is­sues such as the lack of wa­ter in the area and on­go­ing com­plaints about the ex­ten­sion of the high­way, he said he could not do it alone.

“This con­stituen­cy is a rur­al con­stituen­cy. There are some chal­lenges that go with be­ing a rur­al con­stituen­cy but many of the chal­lenges are the same across Trinidad and To­ba­go, and that’s what we do to en­sure these chal­lenges are elim­i­nat­ed and we con­tin­ue to im­prove the qual­i­ty of life for every­one in Trinidad and To­ba­go and now for me in the La Brea con­stituen­cy.

“This is not about a rep­re­sen­ta­tive and all the bur­den does not go to the rep­re­sen­ta­tive. The rep­re­sen­ta­tive must work with the peo­ple and to­geth­er when there is that type of re­la­tion­ship, you find that chal­lenges be­gin to dis­ap­pear.”

Though he was over­looked, a teary-eyed Pierre told his sup­port­ers he would con­tin­ue to serve the con­stituents and help as best as he could.

“I put my­self for­ward to serve as a young man and I put my­self for­ward to be vic­to­ri­ous. Tonight, I was not vic­to­ri­ous in the sense that my can­di­da­cy was not se­lect­ed to rep­re­sent the con­stituen­cy that I live, the con­stituen­cy that I’ve grown in and the con­stituen­cy that has done so much for me as a young man, but we con­tin­ue to be of ser­vice,” he said.

In Laven­tille East/Mor­vant, Chris­t­ian Birch­wood, an en­gi­neer, al­so got the nod from the screen­ing pan­el last night. Birch­wood was cho­sen over na­tion­al schol­ar and for­mer tem­po­rary sen­a­tor Dr Je­re­my In­niss; teacher Tracey East­man; fu­ner­al home di­rec­tor David Simp­son and Mor­vant coun­cil­lor Ju­nior St Hillaire.