Gail Alexan­der

Se­nior Po­lit­i­cal Re­porter

PNM San Fer­nan­do East sup­port­ers have pro­duced a jumpy elec­tion tune sup­port­ing in­cum­bent Bri­an Man­ning for the seat.

In St Ann’s East, in­cum­bent MP Dr Nyan Gads­by-Dol­ly is get­ting the ma­jor­i­ty of sup­port from par­ty groups de­spite com­pe­ti­tion from telecom­mu­ni­ca­tion pro­fes­sion­al Lyn­don Lara, the broth­er of crick­et leg­end Bri­an Lara.

This was con­firmed by par­ty of­fi­cials as prepa­ra­tions con­tin­ue in 15 PNM-held con­stituen­cies for the De­cem­ber 2 screen­ing of nom­i­nees for those ar­eas. All the in­cum­bents have sub­mit­ted con­sent let­ters to par­ty units in­di­cat­ing their will­ing­ness to be nom­i­nat­ed.

The nom­i­nees will be screened in six batch­es by a team head­ed by po­lit­i­cal leader Dr Kei­th Row­ley at Bal­isi­er House from 5.30 pm.

The 15 ar­eas rep­re­sent most of the 22 seats held by the PNM. The par­ty se­lect­ed prospec­tive can­di­dates for the 19 con­stituen­cies held by the Op­po­si­tion in Sep­tem­ber and prospec­tive can­di­dates have been in the field work­ing since then.

Ma­yaro MP Rush­ton Paray re­cent­ly ex­pressed con­cern about when UNC screen­ings will be­gin. He said the PNM had a head start and al­ready had a can­di­date work­ing in his con­stituen­cy.

Con­stituen­cy ex­ec­u­tives can make rec­om­men­da­tions on their choice of can­di­date but ul­ti­mate­ly the de­ci­sion on can­di­dates is made by the nine-mem­ber screen­ing team.

In St Ann’s East, Lyn­don Lara was nom­i­nat­ed, but Gads­by-Dol­ly is so far get­ting the bulk of par­ty unit sup­port.

Mean­while, the elec­tion tune for San Fer­nan­do East in­cum­bent Man­ning has been gain­ing pop­u­lar­i­ty. In 2020 Man­ning won the seat which his fa­ther Patrick Man­ning, for­mer PNM leader and prime min­is­ter, won a record 11 times.

Al­so seek­ing the San Fer­nan­do East can­di­da­cy is Co­coyea/Tarou­ba coun­cil­lor Tere­sa Lynch

The jumpy tune by San Fer­nan­do East sup­port­ers and par­ty groups pro­mot­ing Man­ning in­cludes these vers­es:

“Tell dem—make way ... we mov­ing with Man­ning, Man­ning, Man­ning (S’an­do East ... S’an­do East”).

Make way for de Man­ning ... tell dem Man­ning in S’an­do East!”

“I won­der if yuh hear dis, this one is the great­est, they quak­ing, cuz Bri­an com­ing.

They sweat­ing on the side­lines, two Man­ning in they life­time.

That’s prob­lems, de votes go kill dem!

Like they nev­er con­sid­er the fruit don’t fall far from de fa­ther.. lead­er­ship in de DNA—Bri­an Man­nig all de way!”

Man­ning go-ing back, Man­ning go-ing back ... to rep­re­sent in de Par­lia­ment.

Man­ning go-ing back, Man­ning go-ing back—dey bet­ter bat in they crease, we mov­ing with Man­ning in S’an­do East.

Tell dem in Co­coyea, (Man­ning com­ing) Mon Re­pos, Pleas­antville ... Mara­bel­la, Vista Bel­la—tell dem Man­ning com­ing back ...”

Among the 15 ar­eas to be screened, the un­op­posed in­cum­bents in­clude La Hor­quet­ta/Tal­paro’s Fos­ter Cum­mings, Ari­ma’s Pen­ne­lope Beck­les, Faris Al-Rawi in San Fer­nan­do West, Adri­an Leonce in Laven­tille East/Mor­vant, Mar­vin Gon­za­les in Lopinot/Bon Air West, and Ter­rence Deyals­ingh in St Joseph.

The Laven­tille West ex­ec­u­tive hasn’t met yet to de­cide who they will rec­om­mend to the screen­ing team be­tween in­cum­bent Fitzger­ald Hinds, at­tor­ney Ka­reem Mar­celle, and Dr Kadelle Jes­samy.

The La Brea ex­ec­u­tive meets on Sat­ur­day to fi­nalise its rec­om­men­da­tion. Siparia Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion al­der­man Christo­pher Enci­nas has the ma­jor­i­ty of sup­port from par­ty groups and the con­stituen­cy’s women and youth leagues. Al­so seek­ing the can­di­da­cy are in­cum­bent Stephen Mc­Clashie and coun­cil­lor Jil­lon Lewis.

Af­ter the 15 ar­eas are screened, there will on­ly be sev­en seats left to be fi­nalised—the three Diego Mar­tin seats in­clud­ing Row­ley’s Diego Mar­tin West con­stituen­cy, the two Port-of-Spain seats, and the two To­ba­go seats.