Kim­ber­ly Mack­han

Prime Min­is­ter Patrick Man­ning could be elect­ed to the San Fer­nan­do East seat for the tenth con­sec­u­tive time since 1971 af­ter he was ap­proved by the PNM screen­ing com­mit­tee last night. Ac­cord­ing to PNM San Fer­nan­do East con­stituen­cy ex­ec­u­tive chair­man Tina Gron­lund-Nunez, Man­ning was screened un­op­posed to con­test the seat at Bal­isi­er House in Port-of-Spain, last night. He was the first PNM gen­er­al elec­tion nom­i­nee to face the screen­ing com­mit­tee, which be­gan its pro­ceed­ings at 5 pm yes­ter­day. Less than 20 min­utes lat­er the process was over.

"The con­stituen­cy is ful­ly be­hind the nom­i­nee. Of course, the screen­ing com­mit­tee will make their fi­nal de­ci­sion," she said. Man­ning en­tered pol­i­tics in 1971, at age 24, as the PNM can­di­date for the San Fer­nan­do East con­stituen­cy. He emerged vic­to­ri­ous in the gen­er­al elec­tion of that year and has won that seat in each gen­er­al elec­tion since, which to­talled nine gen­er­al elec­tions. The sec­ond per­son to face the PNM screen­ing com­mit­tee was San Fer­nan­do West MP Ju­nia Re­grel­lo, who was suc­cess­ful in his bid to re­con­test his seat for the PNM. Re­grel­lo said he was elat­ed and he thanked his con­stituen­cy ex­ec­u­tive for throw­ing their sup­port be­hind him.

PNM San Fer­nan­do West con­stituen­cy chair­man ex­ec­u­tive Owen Hinds Snr said he was con­fi­dent the con­stituen­cy would re­main PNM un­der Re­grel­lo and he would de­feat can­di­dates from oth­er po­lit­i­cal par­ties. The third nom­i­nee to face the PNM screen­ing com­mit­tee was Pointe-a-Pierre MP Chris­tine Kan­ga­loo. She was al­so un­op­posed and suc­cess­ful in her bid to re-con­test her seat for the PNM. Kan­ga­loo con­ced­ed that a unit­ed Op­po­si­tion would present chal­lenges to her elec­tion cam­paign. "I feel the same way I felt in 2007, when I was the can­di­date then and I was suc­cess­ful. There are chal­lenges but you just have to be pre­pared to face them," Kan­ga­loo added. (KM)