Gail Alexan­der

For­mer Na­pari­ma Col­lege prin­ci­pal Dr Michael Dowlath, who was cho­sen by the UNC to con­test the San Fer­nan­do West seat, is thank­ing the par­ty’s po­lit­i­cal leader for see­ing the val­ue in his can­di­da­cy.

“I look for­ward to work­ing in the con­stituen­cy and with the ex­ec­u­tive in deal­ing with the is­sues and mov­ing for­ward pos­i­tive­ly,” Dowlath told Guardian Me­dia yes­ter­day af­ter his name was an­nounced as a can­di­date for the gen­er­al elec­tions in 2025.

San Fer­nan­do West is held by Faris Al-Rawi.

Dowlat was an­nounced by the UNC af­ter the par­ty kicked off its screen­ing on Fri­day.

Par­ty leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar al­so an­nounced that in­cum­bent MPs for Barataria/San Juan and Ch­agua­nas East - Sad­dam Ho­sein and Van­dana Mo­hit - were again se­lect­ed to con­test those seats.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar said Dowlath, Ho­sein and Mo­hit were cho­sen for what she de­scribed as three “so-called mar­gin­al seats.”

“We’ll con­tin­ue to screen in due course,” Per­sad-Bisses­sar added.

Dowlath was cho­sen over oth­er nom­i­nees for San Fer­nan­do West in­clud­ing Sen­a­tor Jayan­ti Lutch­me­di­al-Ram­di­al and UNC’s Mara­bel­la West coun­cil­lor John Al­i­bo­cus, al­so called Makamil­lion.

Yes­ter­day Lutch­me­di­al-Ram­di­al, who al­so sought nom­i­na­tion for Na­pari­ma, was not up­set af­ter miss­ing out on be­ing se­lect­ed.

“Re­gard­less of whether I’m cho­sen for San Fer­nan­do West, an­oth­er seat or none at all, I re­main com­mit­ted to work­ing with the UNC to res­cue this coun­try from the cur­rent mess it has found itelf in as a re­sult of poor gov­er­nance un­der the PNM. I’ll work with any can­di­date se­lect­ed,” she said.

The PNM’s Al-Rawi, who Dowlath may bat­tle for the seat, is be­ing screened by the PNM this evening. Up to yes­ter­day, Al-Rawi was un­op­posed and sup­port­ed by PNM’s San Fer­nan­do West ex­ec­u­tive for the can­di­da­cy.

In Barataria/San Juan, Ho­sein- who won in 2020 - will be fight­ing the PNM’s Dr Muhammed Ibrahim (Sen­ate vice pres­i­dent).

For Ch­agua­nas East, Mo­hit will go up against the PNM’s Richie Sookhai (Min­is­ter in the Min­istry of Works).

Mean­while, po­lit­i­cal an­a­lyst Dr Shane Mo­hammed rub­bished ru­mours that he had “sub­mit­ted a UNC nom­i­na­tion.” Mo­hammed said, “I have not vol­un­teered a nom­i­na­tion to any po­lit­i­cal par­ty. If any par­ty wish­es me to be part of their team, they know how to find me.”