SHAL­IZA HAS­SANALI

Se­nior In­ves­tiga­tive Re­porter

shal­iza.has­sanali@guardian.co.tt

At least ten peo­ple have sub­mit­ted let­ters of con­sent to be nom­i­nat­ed as the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) can­di­date for the Mal­abar/Mau­si­ca seat (for­mer­ly the D’Abadie/O’Meara) con­stituen­cy held by MP Lisa Mor­ris-Ju­lian, who died last month in a fire at her Ari­ma home.

The blaze al­so claimed the lives of two of Mor­ris-Ju­lian’s chil­dren, six-year-old Je­si­ah and Xi­anne, 25.

Among those in­ter­est­ed in be­com­ing can­di­dates are PNM’s Ari­ma Cen­tral coun­cil­lor Shel­don “Fish” Gar­cia, chair­man of the con­stituen­cy Gillian Lewis, Kim Gar­cia-John, Lenore Pam­phille, San­jeev Boodoo and Derek King (con­stituen­cy vice chair­man).

It was ru­moured that Ari­ma Bor­ough Cor­po­ra­tion Cal­vary coun­cil­lor Janiece Scott had al­so of­fered her­self. How­ev­er, when con­tact­ed Scott said she was un­sure if she would file nom­i­na­tions.

The dead­line for nom­i­na­tions of the high­ly con­test­ed seat is Jan­u­ary 27.

Gar­cia said he had heard “about 20 peo­ple” were eye­ing the seat.

Un­der the PNM’s con­sti­tu­tion, it is the re­spon­si­bil­i­ty of par­ty groups, the women’s arm and youth league in each con­stituen­cy to nom­i­nate a can­di­date for screen­ing ahead of an elec­tion.

The Elec­tions and Bound­aries Com­mis­sion (EBC) 2024 re­port of Re­view of Con­stituen­cy Bound­aries pro­posed that D’Abadie/O’Meara be re­named Mal­abar/Mau­si­ca.

In 2021, Gar­cia won the Ari­ma Cen­tral elec­toral dis­trict in the lo­cal gov­ern­ment by-elec­tion for the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress, af­ter edg­ing out the PNM’s can­di­date.

A PNM sup­port­er since 2005, Gar­cia joined the UNC in 2020. He con­test­ed the 2021 by-elec­tion for Ari­ma Cen­tral, which was held for sev­en years by then-coun­cil­lor Mor­ris-Ju­lian. 

The seat be­came va­cant when Mor­ris-Ju­lian was made a can­di­date for D’Abadie/O’Meara for the 2020 Gen­er­al Elec­tions and went on to be­come MP.

Gar­cia be­came the on­ly UNC coun­cil­lor along­side the coun­cil’s six PNM coun­cil­lors.

Less than two years af­ter serv­ing the UNC, Gar­cia sub­mit­ted his res­ig­na­tion to leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar, say­ing he did not get sup­port from the par­ty.

Gar­cia, who func­tioned as an in­de­pen­dent, lat­er crossed the floor and con­test­ed the Ari­ma Cen­tral elec­toral dis­trict for the PNM in the Au­gust 2023 lo­cal gov­ern­ment elec­tions, which he won.

If Gar­cia is se­lect­ed as the D’Abadie/O’Meara can­di­date for the PNM, the EBC would have to call an­oth­er by-elec­tion to fill the va­cant Ari­ma Cen­tral dis­trict.

Gar­cia ad­mit­ted to Guardian Me­dia on Wednes­day that he had sub­mit­ted his let­ter hop­ing to be nom­i­nat­ed. He de­scribed him­self as a strong con­tender and viewed his chances as strong.

“I fought two elec­tions for both par­ties and won. In my opin­ion, they (PNM) have a win­ning horse in the race. I am stay­ing pos­i­tive,” Gar­cia said, adding he has been re­ceiv­ing a lot of en­cour­age­ment since of­fer­ing him­self.

“A lot of peo­ple say­ing if I get se­lect­ed it would be their first time sup­port­ing PNM. That is the kind of sup­port I have.”

Gar­cia said giv­en the his­to­ry of the PNM, they would not take a chance to se­lect some­one who does not have a proven track record.

“I is a man, I could go any­where in D’Abadie/O’Meara. Fish is a house­hold name. I just stay­ing pos­i­tive.”

Gar­cia said he nev­er got an op­por­tu­ni­ty to thank Mor­ris-Ju­lian when she was alive for of­fer­ing her­self as a can­di­date in the last gen­er­al elec­tion, which opened the Ari­ma Cen­tral door for him.

Asked if he could fill Mor­ris-Ju­lian’s shoes, Gar­cia said, “I don’t think any­body would fill her shoes. What I can tell you is if I get an op­por­tu­ni­ty to serve, I will try my best.”

The ad­vice Mor­ris-Ju­lian al­ways shared with Gar­cia was to stay ground­ed and work for the peo­ple.

“She was a car­ing hu­man be­ing...Lisa is the rea­son why I am here. What I miss about her is the guid­ance. When­ev­er I had a prob­lem, she nev­er gave me bad ad­vice. I am so grate­ful for every­thing she has done for me.”

Gar­cia said Ari­ma MP Pen­ne­lope Beck­les-Robin­son was the per­son who in­flu­enced him to join the PNM—a de­ci­sion he nev­er re­gret­ted.

Mean­while, Gar­cia-John al­so con­firmed she had of­fered her­self “as a prospec­tive can­di­date” for the seat.

“I feel very con­fi­dent ... I have been part of the D’Abadie/O’Meara con­stituen­cy for over 20 years. I have served in the con­stituen­cy at var­i­ous lev­els,” she said.

From 2019 to 2022, Gar­cia-John served as the sec­re­tary of the con­stituen­cy ex­ec­u­tive.

On Wednes­day, Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Fitzger­ald Hinds re­ceived the re­port on the T&T Fire Ser­vice’s re­sponse to the trag­ic fire that killed Mor­ris-Ju­lian and her two chil­dren.

Re­peat­ed calls to King’s phone went unan­swered.