Gail Alexan­der

Se­nior Po­lit­i­cal Re­porter

With­in the 15 con­stituen­cies of the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) which will sub­mit their 2025 gen­er­al elec­tion nom­i­nees to the par­ty from to­day, are chal­lengers to in­cum­bent MPs in ar­eas from La Brea and St Ann’s East to To­co/San­gre Grande and Tu­na­puna.

This is sim­i­lar to what ap­plies in Laven­tille West, whose Women’s League Unit met last night on its nom­i­na­tions. The over­all sit­u­a­tion was con­firmed by of­fi­cials in the re­spec­tive ar­eas. On Oc­to­ber 21, the PNM called for nom­i­na­tions from 15 of the 22 con­stituen­cies it holds. Screen­ing is ex­pect­ed to be­gin by the end of the month.

Mean­while, La Brea of­fi­cials said Siparia Cor­po­ra­tion al­der­man Chris Enci­nas ob­tained ma­jor­i­ty sup­port for the nom­i­na­tion over in­cum­bent MP Stephen McLatchie, Brighton Ves­signy coun­cil­lor Jil­lon Lewis, and for­mer UNC of­fi­cial Tarhar­qa Obi­ka, who al­so sub­mit­ted a nom­i­na­tion. All had con­sent­ed to the nom­i­na­tion. Obi­ka crossed to the PNM in 2023 and has been as­sist­ing the PNM in south­west Trinidad, he said re­cent­ly.

It was con­firmed La Brea Women’s League gave Enci­nas 50-plus votes to one for McLatchie, five for Lewis, and four for Obi­ka. Its Youth League unit gave Enci­nas 100 per cent sup­port. La Brea of­fi­cials ex­pect­ed Enci­nas would get the nod for elec­tions.

Ex-min­is­ter Robert Le Hunte, who un­suc­cess­ful­ly sought La Brea can­di­da­cy in 2020 af­ter he re­signed from the Cab­i­net, said re­cent­ly he had been ap­proached to seek nom­i­na­tion. But on Tues­day, Le Hunte told Guardian Me­dia that he would not.

In St Ann’s East, con­sent for nom­i­na­tion has come for MP Nyan Gads­by-Dol­ly as well as for a male telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions pro­fes­sion­al. In To­co-San­gre Grande, those who con­sent­ed to nom­i­na­tion are in­cum­bent MP Roger Mon­roe, a doc­tor, a lawyer, and one­time UNC/then ILP coun­cil­lor Dayne Fran­cois, who has been with the PNM since 2015.

On Wednes­day, the Tu­na­puna ex­ec­u­tive in­ter­viewed in­cum­bent MP Es­mond Forde (deputy House Speak­er), TTPost chair­man Dr Michael Seales, the Air­ports Au­thor­i­ty‘s Don Isaac, and busi­ness­woman Krys­tle Hor­wood. The ex­ec­u­tive will meet to make their own de­ci­sion to send to Bal­isi­er House ahead. Arou­ca Mal­oney has two nom­i­nees: Camille Robin­son-Reg­is and ex-MP Ali­cia Hospedales. 

Con­stituen­cies where in­cum­bents are un­op­posed are Ari­ma (Pen­ne­lope Beck­les), San Fer­nan­do East (Bri­an Man­ning), San Fer­nan­do West (Faris Al-Rawi), Point Fortin (Kennedy Richards), Lopinot/Bon Air West (Mar­vin Gon­za­les), D’Abadie/O’Meara (Lisa Mor­ris-Julien), Laven­tille East/Mor­vant (Adri­an Leonce), St Joseph (Ter­rence Deyals­ingh), La Hor­quet­ta/Tal­paro (Fos­ter Cum­mings).