Ken Ali

Ram­raj Har­riper­sad says he is quit­ing as an act­ing se­nior mag­is­trate, af­ter fil­ing nom­i­na­tion pa­pers to con­test the forth­com­ing gen­er­al elec­tion.

Har­riper­sad, 55, said last night he would go on pre-re­tire­ment leave in light of his de­ci­sion to seek to fight Princes Town North on a Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) tick­et. He stat­ed that he would dis­cuss his pre-re­tire­ment with act­ing Chief Mag­is­trate Mark Welling­ton. Har­riper­sad would al­so demit the post as pres­i­dent of the Mag­is­trates' As­so­ci­a­tion.

He said he opt­ed to con­test the elec­tion be­cause "I love to see things go right." Har­riper­sad con­test­ed the Na­pari­ma seat on a Na­tion­al Al­liance for Re­con­struc­tion (NAR) in 1991. Win­ston Siri­ram, a for­mer may­or of Ch­agua­nas, filed pa­pers for Ch­agua­nas East, while crick­et ad­min­is­tra­tor Omar Khan is seek­ing to be the Pointe-a-Pierre rep­re­sen­ta­tive.

Busi­ness­man Dan­ny Ma­haraj is mak­ing a pitch for Na­pari­ma, while San Fer­nan­do City Clerk Mar­lene Coudray filed nom­i­na­tion pa­pers for San Fer­nan­do West. At­tor­ney Ravi Rat­ti­ram sent in doc­u­ments for Tabaquite, a seat in which in­cum­bent Ramesh Lawrence Ma­haraj wants to be re-elect­ed. n See Page A7