GAIL ALEXAN­DER

It's of­fi­cial - for­mer Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment Ari­ma MP Pen­ny Beck­les-Robin­son has been cho­sen as the prospec­tive can­di­date for Ari­ma in this year’s gen­er­al elec­tions.

She edged out in­cum­bent MP and Ed­u­ca­tion Min­is­ter An­tho­ny Gar­cia, who was the favourite ear­ly on hav­ing won the seat in the 2015 gen­er­al elec­tions, for the po­si­tion.

And To­co-San­gre Grande al­der­man Roger Munroe has al­so been cho­sen as the prospec­tive To­co-Sand Grande can­di­date.

That was the con­clu­sion of Sun­day's PNM screen­ing team’s de­lib­er­a­tions on the two seats.

The se­lec­tions were con­firmed by par­ty of­fi­cials as well as rep­re­sen­ta­tives of both Ari­ma and To­co-San­gre Grande's ex­ec­u­tives fol­low­ing the end of screen­ing for the two seats at 10 pm Sun­day.

Nom­i­nees for To­co-San­gre Grande, Ari­ma and Lopinot-Bon Air West were screened at Queen's Hall, St Ann’s from 5 pm Sun­day.

Lopinot-Bon Air West's nom­i­nees were still be­ing screened af­ter 10 pm.

Beck­les-Robin­son, who was T&T's Am­bas­sador at the Unit­ed Na­tions, re­turned home af­ter re­ceiv­ing an ex­emp­tion from Gov­ern­ment to en­ter through T&T's closed bor­ders. The T&T Guardian con­firmed that Beck­les-Robin­son has been in T&T since Wednes­day and has been in the manda­to­ry 14-day COVID-19 quar­an­tine.

On Sun­day, Beck­les-Robin­son was screened by the screen­ing team via the Zoom plat­form from her quar­an­tine lo­ca­tion.

She was one of three Ari­ma can­di­dates, in­clud­ing in­cum­bent Gar­cia - who was rec­om­mend­ed by Ari­ma's ex­ec­u­tive - and Dr Hillary Bernard. When nom­i­na­tions first came in, Gar­cia had 11 ex­ec­u­tive votes, Bernard 7 and Beck­les-Robin­son 5. Gar­cia al­so had sup­port from 8 par­ty groups, Beck­les-Robin­son from 6 and Bernard 2.

At Sun­day's screen­ing, Ari­ma went in at 7 pm and Gar­cia, Bernard and Beck­les-Robin­son were screened.

How­ev­er, Ari­ma's ex­ec­u­tive was asked to vote for a can­di­date via se­cret bal­lot. PNM of­fi­cials added that Beck­les-Robin­son got nine votes, Gar­cia six and Bernard four.

The T&T Guardian was told that screen­ing team leader Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley even­tu­al­ly an­nounced Beck­les-Robin­son as the cho­sen can­di­date. She didn't an­swer sub­se­quent calls on her suc­cess.

Beck­les-Robin­son was Ari­ma MP un­der the now-de­ceased Patrick Man­ning regime. She un­suc­cess­ful­ly cam­paigned for the par­ty’s lead­er­ship against Row­ley in 2014. He ap­point­ed her UN Am­bas­sador when he won gen­er­al elec­tions in 2015.

To­co-San­gre Grande's ex­ec­u­tive was al­so asked to vote via se­cret bal­lot to choose a can­di­date, PNM of­fi­cials added.

Af­ter an an­nounce­ment on Munroe, To­co-San­gre Grande par­ty groups were feel­ing a sense of re­lief that he was cho­sen, since he's been seen as the per­son who can pull to­geth­er ar­eas - in­clud­ing North­west - where the PNM slipped in the 2019 Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment polls

To­co-San­gre Grande of­fi­cials said coun­cil­lor Ter­ry Ron­don, who was among sev­er­al nom­i­nees, re­ceived four votes out of 14 from the ex­ec­u­tive mem­bers. He was asked by screen­ing team mem­ber Colm Im­bert about his health. Ron­don was un­der doc­tor's su­per­vi­sion but had said his doc­tors had giv­en him ap­proval to seek nom­i­na­tion.

It was To­co's third shot at screen­ing and Ari­ma's first.

La Brea has to re­turn on Thurs­day for screen­ing of its third set of nom­i­nees.