The Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) has cho­sen nurse Natasha Mo­hammed as its prospec­tive gen­er­al elec­tion can­di­date for Siparia, af­ter com­plet­ing screen­ing on Tues­day for 19 Op­po­si­tion-held con­stituen­cies.

Mo­hammed will go up against Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar, who has been MP there since 1995.

The se­lec­tion of prospec­tive can­di­dates for Siparia and oth­er UNC con­stituen­cies was con­duct­ed on Tues­day when the PNM’s Screen­ing Team, par­ty leader and Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley, met at their Bal­isi­er House head­quar­ters in Port-of-Spain.

The PNM first called for gen­er­al elec­tion nom­i­nees for nine of the 19 UNC-held ar­eas in June. It sub­se­quent­ly called for nom­i­nees for the ten oth­er UNC-con­trolled ar­eas in Au­gust. Screen­ing was done for the for­mer batch in Au­gust and for five more ar­eas in Sep­tem­ber.

Tues­day’s screen­ing was to se­lect can­di­dates for Siparia, Princes Town, Na­pari­ma, Oropouche East and Oropouche West.

A sec­ond screen­ing was done for Cou­va South af­ter Roshan Ram­cha­ran with­drew for per­son­al rea­sons. PNM of­fi­cials said busi­ness­man Aaron Mo­hammed is re­plac­ing Ram­cha­ran.

Par­ty of­fi­cials said Mo­hammed, 32, was cho­sen from among four oth­er nom­i­nees. She’s cur­rent­ly em­ployed at a med­ical fa­cil­i­ty and is con­tin­u­ing stud­ies in law and will be­gin avi­a­tion pi­lot train­ing in 2025. Mo­hammed comes from a PNM fam­i­ly and is a res­i­dent of the con­stituen­cy. Par­ty of­fi­cials said she holds a lead­er­ship po­si­tion in the com­mu­ni­ty in re­li­gious ac­tiv­i­ties.

In the 2020 gen­er­al elec­tion, PNM can­di­date Re­bec­ca Dip­nar­ine re­ceived 3,855 votes to Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s 13,847. Both par­ties re­ceived re­duced votes in 2020 com­pared to the 2015 elec­tion.

Al­so se­lect­ed on Tues­day was JR&D Fur­ni­ture Store own­er Rock­lyn Mo­hammed for Princes Town. That seat is held by UNC’s Bar­ry Padarath.

Of­fi­cials said, “We’re go­ing for Princes Town big time, since PNM’s re­ceived much en­cour­age­ment with the Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment win in Lengua/In­di­an Walk. We’re build­ing on this suc­cess, es­pe­cial­ly since our can­di­date is pop­u­lar for treat­ing every­one in Princes Town like fam­i­ly.”

Cho­sen for Na­pari­ma was busi­ness­woman Sarah Nan­goo. UNC MP Rod­ney Charles, who is es­tranged from the par­ty, cur­rent­ly rep­re­sents Na­pari­ma.

The PNM al­so se­lect­ed Shawn Dubay for Oropouche West (held by UNC chair­man Dave Tan­coo) and Richard Rag­bir for Oropouche East (held by UNC deputy leader Dr Roodal Mooni­lal).

Ali­cia seeks Camille’s seat

And as nom­i­na­tions for 15 PNM-held seats opened, there’s com­pe­ti­tion for Laven­tille West MP Fitzger­ald Hinds from two oth­er nom­i­nees, in­clud­ing Port-of-Spain al­der­man Ka­reem Mar­celle.

Yes­ter­day, PNM sources said so far, a quar­ter of St Joseph PNM’s 35 par­ty groups had nom­i­nat­ed MP Ter­rence Deyals­ingh, who has in­di­cat­ed his in­ter­est to con­test again.

Deyals­ingh did not re­spond to Guardian Me­dia’s ques­tions about his nom­i­na­tion. Nei­ther has St Ann’s East MP Dr Nyan Gads­by–Dol­ly replied to a sim­i­lar query about hers.

Laven­tille East/Mor­vant par­ty groups are said to be “solid­ly be­hind” MP Adri­an Leonce. La Hor­quet­ta/Tal­paro of­fi­cials ex­pect MP Fos­ter Cum­mings to have unan­i­mous sup­port for his nom­i­na­tion.

Lopinot/ Bon Air West MP Mar­vin Gon­za­les has full par­ty group sup­port, ac­cord­ing to con­stituen­cy chair­man Kyle Williams.

“MP Gon­za­les is a work­er. No one’s ob­ject­ed to his nom­i­na­tion,” he said.

Arou­ca/Mal­oney of­fi­cials said nom­i­na­tion pa­pers were sub­mit­ted by MP Camille Robin­son-Reg­is last Sun­day. But for­mer MP for the area, Ali­cia Hospedales, is said to be al­so seek­ing nom­i­na­tion.

D’Abadie/O’Meara’s Lisa Mor­ris-Ju­lian has of­fered her­self for nom­i­na­tion, and so too Ari­ma’s Pen­ne­lope Beck­les-Robin­son. PNM sources said there’s so far no con­fir­ma­tion of any oth­er Ari­ma con­tenders.

San Fer­nan­do West MP Faris Al-Rawi is seek­ing to con­test again, while San Fer­nan­do East MP Bri­an Man­ning does not have any chal­lengers for that con­stituen­cy. Par­ty sources rub­bished UNC claims that for­mer MP, now Tourism Min­is­ter Ran­dall Mitchell, was in­ter­est­ed in San Fer­nan­do East.

La Brea’s Stephen McLashie has sub­mit­ted nom­i­na­tion pa­pers to a par­ty group. Ex-Min­is­ter Robert Le Hunte said yes­ter­day he hasn’t sub­mit­ted nom­i­na­tion forms.

To­co/San­gre Grande MP Roger Mon­roe con­firmed he is seek­ing to rep­re­sent the area again, but con­stituen­cy sources ex­pect oth­er peo­ple to chal­lenge him.

Tu­na­puna MP Es­mond Forde sub­mit­ted con­sent pa­pers on Mon­day, while Point Fortin MP Kennedy Richards Jr is seek­ing the nom­i­na­tion.

Af­ter the 15 ar­eas are fi­nalised, there will be sev­en oth­er PNM-held seats to com­plete: Diego Mar­tin West (held by Row­ley), Diego Mar­tin North East (Colm Im­bert), Diego Mar­tin Cen­tral (Symon de No­bri­ga), Port-of-Spain North (Stu­art Young), Port-of-Spain South (Kei­th Scot­land), To­ba­go East (Ayan­na Web­ster-Roy) and To­ba­go West (Sham­fa Cud­joe-Lewis).

PNM’s se­lec­tions

*Pointe-a-Pierre - Busi­ness­man Mukesh Ram­s­ingh

*Barataria/San Juan - Sen­ate vice pres­i­dent Dr Muhammed Ibrahim

* St Au­gus­tine - Min­is­ter in the At­tor­ney Gen­er­al’s of­fice Renu­ka Sagram­s­ingh

*Ch­agua­nas East - Min­is­ter in Works Richie Sookhai

*Ca­roni East -Da­ta an­a­lyst Leena Ram­per­sad

* Moru­ga-Table­land - Sec­ondary school dean Lisa At­wa­ter

*Fyz­abad - Project Man­ag­er/ Busi­ness De­vel­op­ment Pro­fes­sion­al Kheron Khan

*Cu­mu­to-Man­zanil­la - Agri­cul­ture Min­istry of­fi­cer Na­dia Ram­ta­hals­ingh

*Ca­roni Cen­tral - Sig­na­ture Hall op­er­a­tor Adam Ho­sein

* Ma­yaro - In­sur­ance ex­ec­u­tive Beat­rice Bridge­lal

* Tabaquite - En­gi­neer/busi­ness­man Anil Ramjit

*Cou­va South - Busi­ness­man Aaron Mo­hammed

*Ch­agua­nas West - Pas­tor Win­ston Ma­habir

* Cou­va North - Brent Maraj

* Siparia - Nurse Natasha Mo­hammed

* Princes Town - Busi­ness­man Rock­lyn Mo­hammed

* Na­pari­ma - Busi­ness­woman Sarah Nan­goo

* Oropouche East - Richard Rag­bir

* Oropouche West- Shawn Dubay