Gail Alexan­der

Se­nior Po­lit­i­cal Re­porter

Ari­ma Cen­tral Coun­cil­lor Shel­don “Fish” Gar­cia who re­signed from the UNC re­cent­ly has con­sent­ed to be a PNM Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment Elec­tions nom­i­nee for that area, while for­mer  UNC Youth Arm Of­fi­cer Kaveesh Siew­di­al has joined the PNM.

Both were among the lat­est UNC mem­bers to de­part from the op­po­si­tion par­ty to join the PNM. Al­so re­sign­ing re­cent­ly from the UNC was War­renville/Kel­ly Vil­lage coun­cil­lor  Samuel Sankar.

Siew­di­al, who was at last Thurs­day’s PNM San Fer­nan­do meet­ing, was wel­comed by Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley.

Gar­cia, who re­signed from UNC on May 15, sub­mit­ted a con­sent let­ter to the PNM on May 18 to be­come a PNM elec­tion nom­i­nee.

Fol­low­ing the Privy Coun­cil’s May 18 judg­ment against the ex­ten­sion of the Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment term, the law to fa­cil­i­tate elec­tions be­tween May 18 and Au­gust 18 will be passed in the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives on Mon­day and in the Sen­ate on Wednes­day.

Both Gar­cia and Siew­di­al are sports­men.

Gar­cia spoke yes­ter­day af­ter a foot­ball game and Siew­di­al af­ter a crick­et match.

Gar­cia said, “It’s ba­si­cal­ly that I’m com­ing back home to PNM, I was PNM since 2005, as­sist­ing Pen­ny Beck­les in Ari­ma.”

A well-known Arim­i­an in sports and com­mu­ni­ty work, Gar­cia joined UNC in 2020. He was hailed by the UNC af­ter the 2021 by-elec­tion for Ari­ma Cen­tral when he be­came the lone UNC coun­cil­lor in the PNM-con­trolled Ari­ma Coun­cil. He won with 734 votes to PNM can­di­date Dr Juli­et Bernard’s 692.

UNC leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar had said Gar­cia’s win “strength­ened and for­ti­fied” the UNC. But in his May 15 res­ig­na­tion let­ter to Per­sad-Bisses­sar, Gar­cia said de­spite his best ef­forts, sup­port from the par­ty and most of her col­leagues, fi­nanciers and sup­port­ers had been “al­most, if not com­plete­ly ab­sent.”

Arima Central Councillor Sheldon “Fish” Garcia, back with the PNM, is seeking to contest that seat for the party.

Gar­cia’s con­sent let­ter to be­come an Ari­ma Cen­tral PNM nom­i­nee–which was sub­mit­ted by a PNM par­ty group–stat­ed, “I, Shel­don Gar­cia, give my con­sent to be nom­i­nat­ed as the can­di­date for Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment for the Ari­ma Cen­tral Elec­toral Dis­trict for the up­com­ing Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment Elec­tions sched­uled to take place in 2023.

“I trust that you will find me wor­thy to serve the burgess­es of the elec­toral dis­trict that I care so pas­sion­ate­ly about and whom I served dili­gent­ly for the past two-and-a-half years. Be as­sured that I am not a mem­ber of an­oth­er po­lit­i­cal par­ty and that the PNM is and will al­ways be home to me.”

Gar­cia, who at­tend­ed the PNM’s April Fam­i­ly Day, said, “PNM mem­bers in the area are very hap­py I’m re­turn­ing. UNC mem­bers al­so know me as a per­son and based on my per­for­mance, I’m op­ti­mistic about get­ting ma­jor­i­ty sup­port. I’m for the peo­ple and all sides know that.

 “I know it’s a nom­i­na­tion process and I’ll be among oth­er nom­i­nees, but I come with high stan­dards, so let the best man or woman win. My fo­cus in every­thing I do is to en­sure peo­ple get what they need and my cre­do is to do my best in all for all.”

Siew­di­al wel­comed

Past UNC Youth Arm of­fi­cer Siew­di­al re­signed from the par­ty in March. Siew­di­al was at last Thurs­day’s PNM San Fer­nan­do meet­ing and was seen shak­ing hands with PNM leader Dr Kei­th Row­ley in the pres­ence of PNM chair­man Stu­art Young and PNM’s lo­cal gov­ern­ment co­or­di­na­tor for San Fer­nan­do, Kaz­im Ho­sein.

Siew­di­al, of Ch­agua­nas, was UNC Youth Arm chair­man from March 2019 to March 2023.

“My res­ig­na­tion was a per­son­al de­ci­sion for the bet­ter­ment of the coun­try and to en­hance youth de­vel­op­ment in T&T.

 “I took a cou­ple of months to ex­am­ine the land­scape and af­ter PNM’s To­co Fam­i­ly Day where I saw the ca­ma­raderie and uni­ty in PNM, my de­ci­sion was eas­i­er. I met se­nior gov­ern­ment of­fi­cials and my mem­ber­ship form was ap­proved this week.

“I think young peo­ple are at­tract­ed more to­wards de­vel­op­ment as­pects of T&T and I saw this Gov­ern­ment was of­fer­ing  youth de­vel­op­ment pro­grammes so I felt I could have added some im­pe­tus and ad­di­tion­al in­put to help our youths.”

 Siew­di­al holds a dou­ble ma­jor in En­vi­ron­men­tal and Re­source Man­age­ment and Ge­og­ra­phy and starts law stud­ies in No­vem­ber. He was of­fered a schol­ar­ship for the mod­el  UN on­line sym­po­sium in 2021 and par­tic­i­pat­ed in sim­i­lar oth­er pro­grammes. In the UNC, Siew­di­al, dur­ing the COVID lock­down, cre­at­ed a free SEA app.

His “de­but” with the PNM at the San Fer­nan­do meet­ing was “very wel­com­ing.” He said, “... I felt ex­treme­ly com­fort­able. And ap­pre­ci­at­ed.” Siew­di­al said he would be cam­paign­ing for PNM in the up­com­ing elec­tions wher­ev­er the PM felt he could make the best con­tri­bu­tion.

PNM em­braces Siew­di­al, UNC shrugs it off

A PNM state­ment yes­ter­day said, "The PNM warm­ly wel­comes Kaveesh Siew­di­al, one of its newest mem­bers and we con­tin­ue to wel­come and em­brace all cit­i­zens who want the best gov­er­nance for Trinidad and To­ba­go and its peo­ple."

UNC of­fi­cials shrugged off the de­par­tures from the par­ty say­ing the UNC "was strong and would win Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment Elec­tions." One UNC chat group which asked the ques­tion, "How many more will go?" stat­ed that "eyes were on Coun­cil­lors Shel­don Gar­cia and Samuel Sankar." The lat­ter who said he would be in the lo­cal gov­ern­ment cam­paign has not yet stat­ed with whom.