KAY-MARIE FLETCH­ER

Se­nior Re­porter

kay-marie.fletch­er@guardian.co.tt

The Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment’s (PNM) prospec­tive gen­er­al elec­tion can­di­date for Tabaquite, Anil Ramjit, was left puz­zled last night, af­ter learn­ing the par­ty was seek­ing new nom­i­nees for the seat al­though he had not re­lin­quished his role.

Al­most an hour af­ter the PNM fi­nalised in­cum­bents Colm Im­bert (Diego Mar­tin North East) and Symon de No­bri­ga (Diego Mar­tin Cen­tral), and new­com­ers Hans De Vi­gnes (Diego Mar­tin West) and San­jiv Bood­hu (Cu­mu­to/Man­zanil­la) as can­di­dates for what was to be its full slate of 41 gen­er­al elec­tion can­di­dates, the par­ty an­nounced that the Tabaquite con­stituen­cy was in the process of find­ing new nom­i­nees.

How­ev­er, the an­nounce­ment came as news to Ramjit, as he told Guardian Me­dia no one from the PNM’s screen­ing com­mit­tee had in­formed him of this de­ci­sion.

But, con­tact­ed last night, he said he be­lieves it could have some­thing to do with run-ins he’s had with the Tabaquite con­stituen­cy ex­ec­u­tive.

Speak­ing to Guardian Me­dia via tele­phone, Ramjit said, “I don’t know why. I didn’t re­sign. I didn’t with­draw. I had some run-ins with the con­stituen­cy ex­ec­u­tive. We had some dis­agree­ments. I don’t want to speak any­thing un­til I find out what’s go­ing on. Hon­est­ly, I now got the mes­sage, but I re­al­ly don’t know what’s hap­pen­ing. I was a bit shocked, but I was hav­ing some se­ri­ous prob­lems with the Tabaquite ex­ec­u­tive, and I have my rea­sons why.”

At­tempts to con­tact Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley, prime min­is­ter-des­ig­nate Stu­art Young and PNM gen­er­al sec­re­tary Fos­ter Cum­mings were un­suc­cess­ful last night.

The Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress will be screen­ing nom­i­nees for Tabaquite to­mor­row.

Ramjit is said to be a for­mer UNC mem­ber, but asked if he will of­fer him­self to the UNC for screen­ing now that the PNM is look­ing for a new can­di­date, he said, “I think af­ter this I would not want to delve in pol­i­tics any­more. I did this be­cause there is a need and there are cer­tain things that need to be ad­dressed, like the traf­fic and road con­di­tions, and I thought it was an op­por­tu­ni­ty to re­al­ly bring that to the fore­front, but I wasn’t in this for any per­son­al gain.”

Guardian Me­dia al­so reached out to in­cum­bent Tabaquite MP and so-called UNC dis­si­dent Ani­ta Haynes-Al­leyne, who con­firmed she in­tends to be screened by her par­ty de­spite dis­agree­ments she would have had with Op­po­si­tion Leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar in the past.

Asked if she would be in­ter­est­ed in be­ing screened by the PNM for Tabaquite if she is re­ject­ed by the UNC, she said, “Kei­th Row­ley told us that they (PNM) have a process, so that an­swers the ques­tion al­ready, so let me go to my screen­ing on Wednes­day. My sole fo­cus is screen­ing on Wednes­day and most im­por­tant­ly, my main job here is na­tion­al ser­vice. My role here is to serve the peo­ple of Trinidad and To­ba­go and I’ve al­ways been clear about that, so the ques­tion of oth­er par­ties and stuff, those things don’t arise right now.”

Asked if any­one from the PNM had reached out to her about screen­ing for Tabaquite, she said no.

Last run for Colm in

Diego North East

Ear­li­er, de­spite ru­mours that PNM fi­nanciers were against in­cum­bent Diego Mar­tin North East MP Colm Im­bert be­ing re-se­lect­ed, the PNM’s screen­ing com­mit­tee an­nounced him as their choice at Bal­isi­er House, Port-of-Spain.

Im­bert, one of the longest-serv­ing PNM MPs, was the sole nom­i­nee screened for the con­stituen­cy.

Un­fazed by the ru­mours im­me­di­ate­ly af­ter the an­nounce­ment, Im­bert said, “I feel very good about it and I’ll make sure this last term of mine is my best term.”

Asked what he had to say about per­sons who did not want him to re­turn, he said, “It’s ok. I told you all I wasn’t too con­cerned about it and this is PNM. This is what PNM is all about.”

Al­so speak­ing af­ter­wards, for­mer Port-of-Spain May­or Joel Mar­tinez said the peo­ple, not the fi­nanciers, are go­ing to ben­e­fit hav­ing Im­bert as MP.

Mar­tinez said, “I think Min­is­ter Im­bert is a very strong can­di­date. He’s al­ways been a very strong min­is­ter. He hasn’t stood for non­sense, and he’s demon­strat­ed that. He may not be the most like­able per­son at times, but when you have to do se­ri­ous work, there are times that peo­ple are not go­ing to like it.”

Row­ley ‘Hans’ over

Diego Mar­tin West

Me­dia per­son­al­i­ty Hans des Vi­gnes was al­so se­lect­ed as the can­di­date for Diego Mar­tin West.

Des Vi­gnes, 39, was cho­sen over for­mer tem­po­rary sen­a­tor Yokym­ma Bethelmy, Cur­tis Tou­s­saint and Lese­di Fe­lix.

Ad­dress­ing sup­port­ers af­ter his win, des Vi­gnes said, “I want to say thank you so much for the sup­port. I want to thank the screen­ing com­mit­tee for al­low­ing me to screen. Ob­vi­ous­ly, I want to thank Dr Row­ley for the foun­da­tion that he set for Diego Mar­tin West. I want to thank the par­ty groups and all the ac­tivists for all the hard work they put in.

“I want to thank my fam­i­ly, not just the fam­i­ly I have by birth but the fam­i­ly that has re­al­ly tak­en care of me and adopt­ed me, the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment. We stand to­geth­er and we will work hard to­geth­er to once again bring home Diego Mar­tin West. Diego Mar­tin West I pledge to you that you are in good hands. Tonight, we cel­e­brate a lit­tle bit but to­mor­row the work starts im­me­di­ate­ly.”

His win comes a lit­tle over two weeks af­ter Dr Row­ley pub­licly sig­nalled he was leav­ing the con­stituen­cy in “good hands”, hint­ing that des Vi­gnes was his choice.

In­cum­bent Diego Mar­tin Cen­tral MP Symon de No­bri­ga was al­so re-se­lect­ed by the screen­ing com­mit­tee.