Jesse Ramdeo
Senior Reporter
jesse.ramdeo@cnc3.co.tt
People’s National Movement General Secretary Foster Cummings says he is happy with how the party’s screening for general election candidates is going, adding there were several worthy candidates seeking to represent the party in the five constituencies now held by the Opposition UNC.
Speaking as the PNM continued its screening process at Balisier House, Port-of-Spain, yesterday, Cummings said, “All the constituencies have multiple nominees save Chaguanas East that has one nominee, who is Minister Richie Sookhai, the other constituencies have multiple and therefore we should be here for a while interviewing all the nominees and having that interaction.” Last year, Sookhai, a central businessman and former Chaguanas Chamber of Industry and Commerce president, was appointed Minister in the Ministry of Works and Transport.
Cummings said he was heartened by the turnout of people for screening since the exercise commenced.
“The response following the call for nomination has been quite impressive. In most cases there have been multiple nominees, so we are very pleased with the response and from our exercise last Friday, we saw persons from all walks of life coming forward, wanting to be part of the PNM team.”
He said they said they were hoping to screen candidates for Cumuto/Manzanilla, St Augustine, Barataria/San Juan, Caroni East and Chaguanas East yesterday, having screened those for the other four constituencies on Friday.
The PNM’s screening committee team is headed by PNM leader and Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley, and includes the party’s deputy leaders, Dr Nyan Gadsby-Dolly, Rohan Sinanan, Colm Imbert, Stuart Young, Faris Al-Rawi, Ancil Dennis and Cummings. Cummings said all prospective candidates will undergo careful examination.
“Firstly, you must have a passion for service and service to your people and community and, of course, we are looking for high calibre candidates who can withstand scrutiny and who the public will feel confident to place their vote.”
Cummings said he was not at liberty to determine the time frame for the screening process.
“We can’t give an end date, the political leader is the one who makes the determination on those matters and for now, these are the constituencies he has decided we will screen and we await to hear from him as time progresses.”
Nominees for the seats to be screened yesterday were:
CARONI EAST: Ragiv Moonan-Ramsaran, Leena Rampersad, Preiman Dayram and Alicia Ali.
BARATARIA/SAN JUAN: Senate vice president Dr Muhammed Yunus Ibrahim, Social Development Minister Donna Cox, police officer Roger Mohammed and businessman Shareek Ali. San Juan councillor Sudbir Sagramsingh withdrew.
ST AUGUSTINE: PNM Senator/Minister in the Attorney General’s Ministry Renuka Sagramsingh-Sooklal.
CUMUTO-MANZANILLA: Communication specialist Sabitree Singh-Saunders and procurement officer Latoya Reyes.