Gail Alexan­der

For­mer Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) St Au­gus­tine MP Vas­ant Bharath says he will be of­fer­ing him­self for screen­ing with the UNC which starts to­day for nom­i­nees in cer­tain ar­eas.

The UNC an­nounced yes­ter­day it would be­gin screen­ing for the up­com­ing gen­er­al elec­tion at 6 pm to­day at its Ch­agua­nas head­quar­ters. This was af­ter its ex­ec­u­tive met on Wednes­day.

The par­ty opened nom­i­na­tions for all seats in Trinidad in 2023 and at the April 2024 dead­line, had re­ceived al­most 200 nom­i­na­tions.

In Sep­tem­ber, the UNC held an elec­tion prepa­ra­tion con­fer­ence, fol­low­ing which it stat­ed it was aim­ing to win 25 seats in the next gen­er­al elec­tion with spe­cif­ic at­ten­tion to ten seats—five held by the PNM and five it cur­rent­ly holds. There was no men­tion then if the UNC would con­test To­ba­go’s two seats or seek arrange­ments with To­ba­go par­ties.

The ten Trinidad con­stituen­cies the UNC is fo­cus­ing on are PNM-held key mar­gin­als—San Fer­nan­do West, La Hor­quet­ta/ Tal­paro, Tu­na­puna, St Joseph, To­co/San­gre Grande; plus UNC-held, Moru­ga/Table­land, Ma­yaro, Pointe-a-Pierre, Ch­agua­nas East and Barataria/San Juan.

Af­ter es­tranged MP Rod­ney Charles’s re­cent con­cerns on “late” screen­ing, Per­sad-Bisses­sar said the process was on­go­ing and can­di­date se­lec­tion “is more than just the in-per­son in­ter­views.

She cit­ed the UNC’s 23-page-long com­pre­hen­sive nom­i­na­tion book­lets and mul­ti­ple meet­ings with con­stituen­cy rep­re­sen­ta­tives. She said in-per­son in­ter­views were just an­oth­er part of screen­ing to clar­i­fy ques­tions/dis­crep­an­cies aris­ing from in­for­ma­tion sub­mit­ted.

Fol­low­ing this, Per­sad-Bisses­sar said nom­i­na­tions may be re­opened for any seats not filled and the Na­tion­al Ex­ec­u­tive (Na­tex) could al­so re­open nom­i­na­tions if need­ed.

Yes­ter­day, Na­tex of­fi­cials said to­day’s screen­ing would cov­er nom­i­nees in­clud­ing for Barataria/San Juan (where the in­cum­bent MP is Sad­dam Ho­sein), Ch­agua­nas East (with in­cum­bent Van­dana Mo­hit), St Joseph, and La Hor­quet­ta/Tal­paro. Oth­er ar­eas will be done ahead.

At a UNC bud­get con­sul­ta­tion in Ju­ly, Bharath an­nounced that Per­sad-Bisses­sar had reached out to him and they had re­con­nect­ed. This was af­ter bit­ter dis­tance be­tween them fol­low­ing his lead­er­ship bids since 2015.

Af­ter the Ju­ly meet­ing, Bharath at­tend­ed Mon­day’s UNC Barataria con­sul­ta­tion where he was warm­ly greet­ed by many and giv­en a front-row seat.

On screen­ing, Bharath told Guardian Me­dia, “This coun­try can­not con­tin­ue on its cur­rent tra­jec­to­ry. I’ll do every­thing I pos­si­bly can to make an in­ter­ven­tion that stops the rot—that in­cludes of­fer­ing my­self for screen­ing.”

Bharath will be at­tend­ing more UNC pub­lic meet­ings ahead, he added. He has not filed a nom­i­na­tion but is ex­pect­ed to seek a seat, es­pe­cial­ly since it has been said nom­i­na­tions could be re­opened for some spe­cial cas­es.

Anx­ious­ly await­ing—Paray

Most of the UNC’s 19 MPs, in­clud­ing St Au­gus­tine MP Kadi­jah Ameen, have filed nom­i­na­tions.

Four of the five UNC MPs who sup­port­ed Ma­yaro MP Rush­ton Paray’s Unit­ed Pa­tri­ots slate in UNC’s ex­ec­u­tive elec­tions filed nom­i­na­tion. Charles is re­tir­ing af­ter the elec­tion.

On UNC’s start of screen­ing, Paray said yes­ter­day, “I await my turn with anx­ious an­tic­i­pa­tion.”

His col­league, Ch­agua­nas West’s Di­nesh Ram­bal­ly said, “Like every­one else, I wait with bat­ed breath to see what UNC’s strat­e­gy and line-up to win Gov­ern­ment in 2025 looks like.”

Tabaquite’s Ani­ta Haynes-Al­leyne and Cu­mu­to/Man­zanil­la’s Rai Rag­bir didn’t re­ply.

Re­cent­ly, the UNC’s La Hor­quet­ta co-or­di­na­tor Sen­a­tor Jear­lean John, who un­suc­cess­ful­ly con­test­ed that seat against the PNM’s Fos­ter Cum­mings in the 2020 elec­tion, said she wouldn’t con­test that seat ahead. She’d said while on the ground she “learnt peo­ple want more from their rep­re­sen­ta­tives and af­ter ob­serv­ing what was hap­pen­ing in La Hor­quet­ta/Tal­paro, was hap­py to re­main” co­or­di­na­tor for the area.

The UNC holds its next Mon­day fo­rum in La Hor­quet­ta. John didn’t re­ply to Guardian Me­dia’s query if she’s seek­ing Ch­agua­nas West.

UNC Sen­a­tor Jayan­ti Lutch­me­di­al filed nom­i­na­tion for Na­pari­ma and San Fer­nan­do West. For­mer Na­pari­ma Col­lege prin­ci­pal Dr Michael Dowlat is be­ing tipped for SF West. Sen­a­tor Dami­an Ly­der sub­mit­ted nom­i­na­tion for Cu­mu­to Man­zanil­la. Sen­a­tor Anil Roberts who’s sought nom­i­na­tion is St Joseph co-or­di­na­tor.