Gail Alexan­der

Se­nior Po­lit­i­cal Re­porter

The Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment will be nam­ing new may­ors and cor­po­ra­tion chair­men fol­low­ing Mon­day’s Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment Elec­tions.

The chair­man of PNM’s Port-of-Spain north unit, Chin­ua Al­leyne, is tipped to be­come Port-of-Spain’s new may­or, Ari­ma busi­ness­man Bal­li­ram Ma­haraj will be Ari­ma’s may­or and San Fer­nan­do’s may­or will be re-elect­ed coun­cil­lor Robert Par­ris, PNM of­fi­cials said yes­ter­day.

This was fi­nalised at a meet­ing which the PNM held on Tues­day re­gard­ing se­lec­tion of may­ors and cor­po­ra­tion chair­men fol­low­ing Mon­day’s 7-7 tie in the elec­tions, a re­peat of the 2019 LG elec­tion re­sult.

Of­fi­cials said yes­ter­day there will be new faces at the lev­el of may­or and cor­po­ra­tion chair­men.

Ap­point­ments were fi­nalised as Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley was due to leave for Bar­ba­dos to­day.

Yes­ter­day, the PNM al­so held a post-elec­tion meet­ing at the Cas­ca­dia Ho­tel in Port-of-Spain for can­di­dates, co-or­di­na­tors and MPs.

In Port-of-Spain, of­fi­cials tipped Al­leyne for may­or. He is chair­man of the PNM’s Port-of-Spain North unit and is the nephew of for­mer PNM leader Patrick Man­ning. Al­leyne was man­ag­er of PNM’s LG cam­paign in parts of PoS. Cur­rent May­or Joel Mar­tinez didn’t sub­mit his name as an al­der­man.

Of­fi­cials said North­ern PoS coun­cil­lor Abeena Hart­ley will be deputy PoS may­or.

Cur­rent Ari­ma may­or is PNM Ari­ma con­stituen­cy ex­ec­u­tive chair­man Cagney Cas­simire. Of­fi­cials said Cas­simire will be re­placed by Ma­haraj, whose name was sub­mit­ted as an al­der­man when the po­lit­i­cal par­ties sub­mit­ted lists of their al­der­men to the Elec­tion and Bound­aries Com­mis­sion in June.

Cas­simire’s name was al­so sub­mit­ted. But well-known busi­ness­man Ma­haraj had been seen at PNM LG cam­paign meet­ings at var­i­ous ar­eas and was “hailed out” in the au­di­ence at the par­ty’s Ari­ma meet­ing.

Deputy may­or for Ari­ma is tipped to be Jo­van Roberts, with two al­der­men to be Derek King and Irene Med­i­na.

In San Fer­nan­do, of­fi­cials said Robert Par­ris, who was re-elect­ed as Pleas­antville coun­cil­lor, will be may­or. He’ll re­place Ju­nia Re­grel­lo, whose name was sub­mit­ted among al­der­men.

Dr Fer­ri Ho­sein will con­tin­ue on as deputy San Fer­nan­do May­or.

Of­fi­cials said there will al­so be new chair­men of the cor­po­ra­tions the PNM re­tained con­trol of: re-elect­ed Ma­coya coun­cil­lor Josi­ah Austin in Tu­na­puna/Pi­ar­co (re­plac­ing Kwasi Robin­son), Richard Wal­cott in San Juan/Laven­tille (re­plac­ing An­tho­ny Roberts), one-time coun­cil­lor Akeila Glas­gow in Diego Mar­tin (re­plac­ing Sigler Jack) and Clyde James in Point Fortin (re­plac­ing Saleema McRee).