An ex­plo­sion of an elec­tri­cal pan­el box caused a tem­po­rary pow­er out­age at the UNC's head­quar­ters in Ch­agua­nas on Fri­day af­ter­noon, just ahead of the com­ple­tion of the par­ty's screen­ing ex­er­cise, which was sched­uled to be­gin at 6 p.m.

Fri­day's ex­er­cis­es wrapped up weeks of de­lib­er­a­tions and as­sess­ments.

To­day, the par­ty is ex­pect­ed to screen can­di­dates for the fi­nal four con­stituen­cies: Diego Mar­tin Cen­tral, Diego Mar­tin West, Diego Mar­tin North/East, and Cu­mu­to/Man­zanil­la.

It is ex­pect­ed that Phillip Alexan­der of the Peo­ple's Em­pow­er­ment Par­ty will con­test one of the Diego Mar­tin seats un­der a UNC ban­ner.

The UNC has formed a coali­tion with Alexan­der's par­ty and sev­er­al trade unions.

In the 2020 gen­er­al elec­tion, Alexan­der un­suc­cess­ful­ly chal­lenged the PNM's Colm Im­bert for the Diego Mar­tin North/East seat.

These screen­ings marked the con­clu­sion of a process that saw nu­mer­ous hope­fuls vy­ing for the chance to rep­re­sent the UNC on the na­tion­al stage.

The Cu­mu­to/Man­zanil­la seat drew par­tic­u­lar in­ter­est fol­low­ing in­cum­bent MP Dr. Rai Rag­bir's an­nounce­ment that he would not seek re-elec­tion. Rag­bir, who had a pub­lic falling-out with par­ty of­fi­cials, cit­ed dis­sat­is­fac­tion with the par­ty’s in­ter­nal prac­tices and lead­er­ship de­ci­sions as rea­sons for step­ping away.

The UNC has yet to for­mal­ly an­nounce the full slate of can­di­dates for all con­stituen­cies but is ex­pect­ed to do so in the com­ing days. The com­ple­tion of the screen­ing ex­er­cise sig­nals the par­ty's fi­nal prepa­ra­tions as it gears up for what is ex­pect­ed to be a high­ly con­test­ed elec­tion.