Gail Alexan­der

Se­nior Po­lit­i­cal Re­porter

Screen­ing of the nom­i­nees for 15 of the PNM’s 22 con­stituen­cies—the ma­jor­i­ty of PNM seats—will all be done on De­cem­ber 2 in six batch­es. Each batch will be screened for ap­prox­i­mate­ly half an hour.

This was con­firmed by a par­ty no­tice af­ter last Fri­day’s dead­line for nom­i­na­tions.

The PNM is­sued a call on Oc­to­ber 21 for nom­i­nees for those 15 ar­eas. Mem­bers of both the PNM and UNC are prepar­ing for elec­tion ear­ly in 2025, sources from both po­lit­i­cal par­ties said yes­ter­day.

The PNM’s screen­ing team head­ed by Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley com­pris­es PNM’s deputy lead­ers Colm Im­bert, Ro­han Sinanan, An­cil Den­nis (To­ba­go leader), and Nyan Gads­by-Dol­ly, as well as PNM ex­ec­u­tive mem­bers chair­man Stu­art Young, la­dy vice chair­man Camille Robin­son-Reg­is, PRO Faris Al-Rawi, gen­er­al sec­re­tary Fos­ter Cum­mings, elec­tions of­fi­cer In­dar Paras­ram, and op­er­a­tions of­fi­cer Irene Hinds.

The par­ty’s vice chair­man is al­so a screen­ing team mem­ber, but that post has been va­cant since 2023, when Gads­by-Dol­ly, who was elect­ed vice chair­man in 2022, was ap­point­ed deputy po­lit­i­cal leader.

Al-Rawi, Robin­son-Reg­is, Gads­by-Dol­ly, and Cum­mings—all nom­i­nees for their con­stituen­cies—will stand down from the screen­ing team when their re­spec­tive ar­eas are screened on De­cem­ber 2.

Nine in­cum­bents are un­op­posed among the 15 con­stituen­cies. In­cum­bents in six of the 15 con­stituen­cies have com­pe­ti­tion with chal­lengers.

The con­stituen­cy ex­ec­u­tives have been col­lat­ing nom­i­na­tions in re­cent weeks for these par­tic­u­lar nom­i­nees from par­ty groups and Women’s League and Youth League units in the re­spec­tive ar­eas.

Ac­cord­ing to PNM of­fi­cials, the typ­i­cal process in­volves all nom­i­nees for a seat meet­ing with the screen­ing team. Over the next two weeks, con­stituen­cy ex­ec­u­tives will dis­cuss their se­lec­tions and are ex­pect­ed to rec­om­mend one can­di­date for con­sid­er­a­tion. They will rec­om­mend that per­son to the screen­ing team, who ul­ti­mate­ly makes the de­ci­sion.

The screen­ing on De­cem­ber 2 at Bal­isi­er House will be done as fol­lows:

5 pm

1. LAVEN­TILLE WEST: MP Fitzger­ald Hinds (nom­i­nat­ed by par­ty groups, Youth League and Women’s League units), at­tor­ney/PoS Al­der­man Ka­reem Mar­celle (Women’s and Youth League units), Dr Kadelle Jes­samy (par­ty group).

2. LAVEN­TILLE EAST/MOR­VANT: (MP Adri­an Leonce).

3. St ANN’S EAST: MP Nyan Gads­by-Dol­ly and a male telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions pro­fes­sion­al, al­so nom­i­nat­ed.

5.30 pm

4. POINT FORTIN (MP Kennedy Richards).

5. LA BREA: (Siparia al­der­man Chris Enci­nas (nom­i­nat­ed by 15 par­ty groups), MP Stephen McLashie (nom­i­nat­ed by 12 par­ty groups), Brighton Ves­signy Coun­cil­lor Jil­lon Lewis (nom­i­nat­ed by one par­ty group). Enci­nas is al­so said to have ma­jor­i­ty Women and Youth League sup­port.

6 pm

6. SAN FER­NAN­DO WEST: (MP Faris Al-Rawi).

7. SAN FER­NAN­DO EAST: (MP Bri­an Man­ning). 6.30 pm

8. TO­CO/SAN­GRE GRANDE: (MP Roger Mon­roe; at­tor­ney Sade Mc­Sween-Bernard, who was nom­i­nat­ed by one par­ty group. A doc­tor, and plaza man­ag­er Dayne Fran­cois with­drew due to a lack of nom­i­na­tion.

9. ARI­MA: (MP Pen­ny Beck­les).

7 pm

10. LA HOR­QUET­TA/TAL­PARO: (MP Fos­ter Cum­mings).

11. AROU­CA MAL­ONEY (MP Camille Robin­son-Reg­is), ex-MP Ali­cia Hospedales.

12. D’ABADIE/O’MEARA: (MP Lisa Mor­ris Julien).

7.30 pm

13. LOPINOT BON AIR WEST: (MP Mar­vin Gon­za­les)

14. TU­NA­PUNA: (MP Es­mond Forde, TTPost chair­man Dr Michael Seales, Air­ports Au­thor­i­ty’s Don Isaac, busi­ness­woman Krys­tle Hor­wood).

15. ST JOSEPH: (MP Ter­rence Deyals­ingh)

Nom­i­nees will be done at a lat­er date for the last sev­en PNM-held con­stituen­cies–Diego Mar­tin West (held by Prime Min­is­ter Kei­th Row­ley), Diego Mar­tin Cen­tral (Com­mu­ni­ca­tion Min­is­ter Symon de No­bri­ga), DM North East (Fi­nance Min­is­ter Im­bert), PoS North (En­er­gy Min­is­ter Young), PoS South (Min­is­ter in Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Kei­th Scot­land), To­ba­go East (Gen­der Af­fairs Min­is­ter Ayan­na Web­ster-Roy), and To­ba­go West (Sports Min­is­ter Sham­fa Cud­joe-Lewis).

The PNM has al­ready placed prospec­tive can­di­dates in­to the 19 ar­eas held by the Op­po­si­tion UNC and they are on the “ground” cam­paign­ing.