Yvonne Webb

Rien­zi Com­plex, Cou­va, was a bee-hive of ac­tiv­i­ty yes­ter­day as droves of prospec­tive can­di­dates for the up­com­ing gen­er­al elec­tions con­verged on the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) head­quar­ters to file nom­i­na­tion pa­pers be­fore the 4 pm dead­line.

Among them was Waz­im Ravi Ram­jack, who is chal­leng­ing po­lit­i­cal leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar to con­test the Siparia seat. Ram­jack de­clined to be in­ter­viewed. In the Cou­va North con­stituen­cy, where the in­cum­bent is Bas­deo Pan­day, the par­ty founder and for­mer po­lit­i­cal leader, for­mer Ch­agua­nas May­or Dr Su­ruj Ram­bachan, along with for­mer PNM sen­a­tor Satish Ram­roop and for­mer jour­nal­ist Sunil Ramjits­ingh, have filed nom­i­na­tion pa­pers for the seat. In Cou­va South, Kelvin Ram­nath hopes to be ac­cept­ed by the screen­ing com­mit­tee, even though he is fac­ing so­cial ac­tivist De­vant Ma­haraj, Sen­a­tor Lyn­di­ra Ou­dit, trade union­ist Rudranath In­dars­ingh and at­tor­ney Dave Per­sad.

In­di­ra Lisa Bho­lai, wife of Trevor Su­dama, a for­mer Agri­cul­ture Min­is­ter and MP for Oropouche, in­tends to con­test the Oropouche West seat which was rep­re­sent­ed by Mick­ela Pan­day. In the Fyz­abad con­stituen­cy Chan­dresh Shar­ma, who has served as MP for four con­sec­u­tive terms, is fac­ing a chal­lenge from new­com­er Vi­jay Fos­ter, 55, a school teacher at the Siparia Union Pres­by­ter­ian School.

Har­ry Par­tap, the Cu­mu­to/Man­zanil­la MP, who had ear­li­er in­di­cat­ed his in­ten­tion to call it a day from pol­i­tics, re­con­sid­ered his de­ci­sion and filed his pa­pers. He is be­ing chal­lenged by Shavi­ta Sav­it­ri Lochan who said the time had come for change. Wade Mark, long-stand­ing sen­a­tor, who fought and lost the Pointe-a-Pierre seat to Chris­tine Kan­ga­loo in the last elec­tion, is back to con­test the seat. He said on the last oc­ca­sion, the three-way fight with the Con­gress of the Peo­ple (COP) made it dif­fi­cult for him to win. As promised, Ramesh Lawrence Ma­haraj, the in­cum­bent for Tabaquite, filed nom­i­na­tion pa­pers short­ly be­fore 11 am. The pa­pers were filed by his couri­er Balchan Sama­roo. How­ev­er, Ma­haraj is be­ing op­posed by Ravi Rat­ti­ram, who fought and lost the La Brea seat in the last elec­tion, and at­tor­ney Anand Ram­lo­gan who chal­lenged Ma­haraj on a COP tick­et and lost in 2007.

In the Point Fortin seat, held by For­eign Af­fairs Min­is­ter Paula Gopee-Scoon, the UNC nom­i­nee An­tho­ny Moore, a se­nior plant in­spec­tor with Petrotrin, be­lieves he can swing it for his par­ty. Over in Ch­agua­nas East, Al­der­man Ramesh Ramd­han, for­mer in­ter­na­tion­al ref­er­ee, wants to con­test the seat for the UNC. There was al­so re­newed in­ter­est in the D'abadie/Omera con­stituen­cy, which is be­ing fought by Karen Tesheira. At least three con­tenders were hop­ing to get the nod from the screen­ing com­mit­tee. They are Vish­nu Koon Koon, 43, a busi­ness­man, Su­san Smith, 25, a cater­er and Stephan Bhag­gan. Glen Ra­mad­hars­ingh, the gen­er­al sec­re­tary of the UNC, said the par­ty would not be re­leas­ing a list of the nom­i­nees un­til the list had been ver­i­fied and checked by Per­sad�Bisses­sar.

Al­so go­ing for screen­ing was Ch­agua­nas May­or Natasha Navas for the La Hor­quet­ta/Tal­paro seat, held by PNM MP Roger Joseph. Navas said she hoped to make a dif­fer­ence. St Au­gus­tine MP Vas­ant Bharat ar­rived mo­ments be­fore Khadi­jah Ameen, UNC lo­cal gov­ern­ment rep­re­sen­ta­tive. Both filed for the St Au­gus­tine seat.