Kim­ber­ly Mack­han

Po­lit­i­cal Leader of the UNC Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar said T&T should brace for change in the UNC with re­gards to her line up of can­di­dates for the 2010 gen­er­al elec­tion. Per­sad-Bisses­sar said the UNC's screen­ing com­mit­tee was pre­sent­ed with a lot of prospec­tive can­di­dates who were "fresh faces" to the lo­cal po­lit­i­cal scene. She said there had been an over­whelm­ing num­ber of per­sons of­fer­ing them­selves to be a can­di­date on her slate for the gen­er­al elec­tion. She said much of these prospec­tive can­di­dates were women and young per­sons.

"There are still so many peo­ple who are of­fer­ing them­selves (to be a UNC can­di­date)...I am en­cour­aged that a change will come when you see the qual­i­ty of can­di­dates," Per­sad-Bisses­sar said. She added: "High pro­file names," such as par­lia­men­tar­i­ans: both for­mer sen­a­tors and in­cum­bent MPs, were not nec­es­sar­i­ly the best can­di­date for the job. "I think we have a great qual­i­ty (of nom­i­nees)...and a wide spread of nom­i­nees," Per­sad-Bisses­sar said.

She spoke dur­ing the lunch break of the UNC's screen­ing ex­er­cise, the fifth day that the par­ty screened prospec­tive can­di­dates for the gen­er­al elec­tion. At present, nom­i­nees for more than 20 con­stituen­cies were screened to on the UNC's slate of can­di­dates for the 2010 gen­er­al elec­tion. Six UNC can­di­dates were de­clared last week to fight the Peo­ple's Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM). Among these in­clud­ed Per­sad-Bisses­sar (Siparia), Jack Warn­er (Ch­agua­nas West), Fuad Khan (Barataria/San Juan), Win­ston Pe­ters (Ma­yaro), Roodal Mooni­lal (Oropouche East) and Clifton De Couteau (Princes Town South/

Table­land).

UNC 2010 Gen­er­al Elec­tion Can­di­dates

Siparia - Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar

Ch­agua­nas West - Jack Warn­er

Barataria/San Juan - Fuad Khan

Ma­yaro - Win­ston Pe­ters

Oropouche East - Roodal Mooni­lal

Princes Town South/Table­land - Clifton De Couteau

Un­de­cid­ed Con­stituen­cies

Ca­roni East - Tim Gopeesingh, Anil Ram­nanan

Cu­mu­to/Man­zanil­la - Har­ry Par­tap, Kr­ish Ju­rai, Sav­it­ri Lochan

Fyz­abad - Chan­dresh Shar­ma, Vi­jay Fos­ter

La Brea - Ramesh Ram­nanand

La Hor­quet­ta/Tal­paro - Natasha Navas, Jairam Seemu­n­gal, Sookram Ali

Laven­tille East/Mor­vant - Glen­da Boodor­am, Garth Christo­pher, Sher­wyn Williams, Pa­tri­cia Her­ry, Wil­fred Far­rell

Laven­tille West - Princess Smart

Na­pari­ma - Nizam Baksh, Dan­ny Ma­haraj, Sieuk­er­an Tam­bie

Point Fortin - Fitzroy Beache, Den­nis Williams, An­tho­ny Moore

Princes Town North - Sub­has Pan­day, Ram­raj Har­riper­sad, Collin Par­tap, Reeza Mo­hammed, Shane Mo­hammed, Neela Khan, Lester Orie

St Ann's East - Ter­ry Joseph, Al­lan­na Ri­vas, Gee­wan Ramdeen

St Au­gus­tine - Vas­ant Bharath, Khadi­jah Ameen

Tabaquite - Ramesh Ma­haraj, Anand Ram­lo­gan, Ravi Rati­ram

To­co/San­gre Grande - Jen­nifer Jones-Ker­na­han