Gail Alexan­der

Se­nior Po­lit­i­cal Re­porter

So-called Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) “dis­si­dent,” Ma­yaro MP Rush­ton Paray, says if he is un­able to se­cure his ex­ist­ing can­di­da­cy, he’ll en­gage in open di­a­logue with the peo­ple of Ma­yaro, and any de­ci­sion about his po­lit­i­cal fu­ture will be made with their in­put and best in­ter­ests in mind.

“... Their voic­es and con­cerns are my guid­ing force,” Paray said yes­ter­day.

He was re­ply­ing to ques­tions on if he was look­ing at his op­tions or look­ing at third par­ties af­ter be­ing screened by the UNC last week.

Paray was screened along with Ma­yaro Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion chair­man Ray­mond Co­zi­er and UNC in­ter­na­tion­al re­la­tions of­fi­cer Nicholas Mor­ris. The lat­ter two are tipped as fron­trun­ners for the seat.

The UNC re­sumes screen­ing this evening to tie up what of­fi­cials de­scribed as “loose ends,” in­clud­ing La Hor­quet­ta/Tal­paro and some Cen­tral ar­eas. The par­ty ex­pects to com­plete screen­ing by the end of the month.

On his un­cer­tain sit­u­a­tion with the Ma­yaro can­di­da­cy, Paray yes­ter­day said, “I al­ways con­sid­er my op­tions, not just for my per­son­al growth but for the ben­e­fit of those I serve. Lead­er­ship is about adapt­abil­i­ty and be­ing open to op­por­tu­ni­ties that can cre­ate mean­ing­ful change. My pri­or­i­ty re­mains to con­tribute pos­i­tive­ly, whether in my cur­rent role or any oth­er av­enue that al­lows me to up­lift my com­mu­ni­ty and coun­try.

“My pri­ma­ry fo­cus is to con­tin­ue serv­ing the peo­ple in what­ev­er ca­pac­i­ty al­lows me to be most ef­fec­tive. Pub­lic ser­vice is not just about hold­ing a po­si­tion—it’s about mak­ing a dif­fer­ence, dri­ving progress, and ad­vo­cat­ing for poli­cies that im­prove the lives of cit­i­zens. Whether in pol­i­tics, busi­ness, or com­mu­ni­ty de­vel­op­ment, my ded­i­ca­tion to ser­vice re­mains un­wa­ver­ing.”

On whether he’d join an­oth­er par­ty and which one, Paray replied, “My loy­al­ty has al­ways been to the peo­ple, not just a po­lit­i­cal par­ty. If I’m un­able to se­cure my ex­ist­ing can­di­da­cy, I’ll en­gage in open di­a­logue with the peo­ple of Ma­yaro, as their voic­es and con­cerns are my guid­ing force. Any de­ci­sion about my po­lit­i­cal fu­ture will be made with their in­put and best in­ter­ests in mind.”

Fel­low so-called “dis­si­dent” MP Dr Rai Rag­bir, who re­fused to be screened by the UNC’s screen­ing team for his Cu­mu­to/Man­zanil­la seat, was al­so asked about his op­tions.

Rag­bir replied, “I’ll con­tin­ue to serve my con­stituents dili­gent­ly and with dig­ni­ty un­til my term ends. While I do not know what the Lord has in store for me next, I trust He will re­veal His plans in due time.

“Cur­rent­ly my fo­cus is on prepar­ing with con­stituents to cel­e­brate Ma­ha Shiv­ra­tri and to wel­come the holy month of Ra­madan. I al­so ex­tend warm wish­es to the na­tion for a joy­ful Car­ni­val sea­son. As we em­brace these fes­tiv­i­ties, I urge every­one to pri­ori­tise their health, cel­e­brate re­spon­si­bly, es­pe­cial­ly re­gard­ing al­co­hol con­sump­tion. Mod­er­a­tion is key.”

Ef­forts to con­tact Tabaquite MP Ani­ta Haynes-Al­leyne - who was screened last week along with three oth­ers - and Ch­agua­nas West MP Di­nesh Ram­bal­ly, who was screened in a first batch of nom­i­nees for Ch­agua­nas West, were un­suc­cess­ful yes­ter­day.

Peo­ple be­ing ap­proached for PNM Tabaquite seats

Mean­while, the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment’s Tabaquite unit is ex­pect­ed to sub­mit its nom­i­nees to the par­ty im­me­di­ate­ly af­ter Car­ni­val.

On Feb­ru­ary 17, the unit was giv­en two weeks to seek nom­i­nees to re­place ini­tial prospec­tive can­di­date Anil Ramjit, who was dropped as the prospec­tive can­di­date by the par­ty last week.

PNM of­fi­cials said about five peo­ple have been ap­proached to seek nom­i­na­tion for the seat, but noth­ing was con­firmed.

PNM’s Tabaquite chair­man Cur­tis Shade said he couldn’t speak when con­tact­ed yes­ter­day, as he was ”hav­ing a ses­sion” with peo­ple. He didn’t an­swer calls sub­se­quent­ly.