Gail Alexan­der

Se­nior Po­lit­i­cal Re­porter

In­cum­bent Tabaquite MP Ani­ta Haynes-Al­leyne is out of the Gen­er­al Elec­tion race with the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC), af­ter she was not se­lect­ed to re-con­test the seat.

Mean­while, in­cum­bent Ma­yaro MP Rush­ton Paray, who was al­so not cho­sen for the con­stituen­cy, yes­ter­day put to rest claims he will be con­test­ing the con­stituen­cy as an in­de­pen­dent can­di­date.

Both, who have been de­scribed as UNC dis­si­dents, will not be in to­day’s Nom­i­na­tion Day ex­er­cise ahead of the April 28 elec­tion.

Haynes-Al­leyne, who was on Paray’s slate in the UNC’s na­tion­al ex­ec­u­tive elec­tion, said she ac­cept­ed the par­ty’s de­ci­sion.

In a state­ment yes­ter­day, the in­cum­bent Tabaquite MP said UNC gen­er­al sec­re­tary Pe­ter Kan­hai had told her of “the de­ci­sion to pur­sue a dif­fer­ent path for rep­re­sen­ta­tion in Tabaquite.”

Haynes-Al­leyne said, “I un­der­stand the par­ty’s de­ci­sion and be­lieve the se­lect­ed can­di­date re­flects its present phi­los­o­phy. I ex­tend best wish­es to the peo­ple of Tabaquite as they step in­to a new era of rep­re­sen­ta­tion. My ul­ti­mate loy­al­ty re­mains with the peo­ple of T&T. I re­main com­mit­ted to the crit­i­cal work of ad­vo­ca­cy and good pol­i­cy de­vel­op­ment.”

Mean­while, Paray, who was re­placed as Ma­yaro can­di­date by UNC in­ter­na­tion­al re­la­tions of­fi­cer Nicholas Mor­ris, put to rest the sug­ges­tion he may file as an in­de­pen­dent can­di­date.

In a state­ment, he said, “Over the past few days, I’ve re­ceived many re­quests and mes­sages urg­ing me to con­test the 2025 Gen­er­al Elec­tion for Ma­yaro as an in­de­pen­dent can­di­date. Af­ter deep re­flec­tion and con­sul­ta­tion with my fam­i­ly, I’ve de­cid­ed not to take that path.

“I know this will dis­ap­point many of you, and I am tru­ly sor­ry. In the in­ter­est of uni­ty and sta­bil­i­ty, I have cho­sen not to re­spond to these calls. I un­der­stand the frus­tra­tion and emo­tion­al im­pact this de­ci­sion may have on my sup­port­ers. I thank you sin­cere­ly for your con­tin­ued loy­al­ty and be­lief in my lead­er­ship. Re­al po­lit­i­cal ma­tu­ri­ty means stand­ing by what you be­lieve is right—even when it’s not the pop­u­lar thing to do.”

Prospec­tive can­di­dates will present nom­i­na­tion doc­u­ments to the Elec­tion and Bound­aries Com­mis­sion’s 41 Re­turn­ing Of­fi­cers. The ex­er­cise is to en­sure they meet the le­gal re­quire­ments to con­test the elec­tion in the 39 con­stituen­cies in Trinidad and the two in To­ba­go. EBC of­fi­cials said yes­ter­day every­thing was in place for to­day’s ex­er­cise.

The Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) is the on­ly par­ty pre­sent­ing can­di­dates for all 41 con­stituen­cies.

PNM ready

PNM chair­man and Prime Min­is­ter Stu­art Young, speak­ing at yes­ter­day’s post-Cab­i­net me­dia brief­ing, said, “The par­ty I’m part of - as chair­man- for weeks now, the pop­u­la­tion has known who our 41 can­di­dates are. We went through the EBC’s ‘run through’ ex­er­cise re­cent­ly and we all know that when we turn up there to­mor­row (Fri­day) there should be no prob­lems.”

Young is ex­pect­ed to file his nom­i­na­tion pa­pers at 9.30 am at the Bel­mont Sec­ondary School. His PNM col­leagues will al­so do so at EBC of­fices all over T&T.

NTA, MND in the fray

Na­tion­al Trans­for­ma­tion Al­liance (NTA) leader Gary Grif­fith will lead his 16 can­di­dates fil­ing nom­i­na­tion pa­pers to­day. Grif­fith, the prospec­tive can­di­date for St Joseph, will file his doc­u­ments at the St Joseph Com­mu­ni­ty Cen­tre at 9 am, while the Move­ment for Na­tion­al De­vel­op­ment (MND) leader Garvin Nicholas will file his pa­pers to con­test the Diego Mar­tin North/East seat at 10 am at Pe­tit Val­ley Com­mu­ni­ty Cen­tre.

Nicholas said the MND has not yet fi­nalised any arrange­ment with the NTA/Com­mu­ni­ty Ref­or­ma­tion Net­work (CRN) al­liance.

Mick­ela Pan­day’s Pa­tri­ot­ic Front an­nounced 28 can­di­dates up to March 29 and planned to an­nounce more last night to­wards the 41, par­ty of­fi­cials said.

To­ba­go can­di­dates ea­ger

Can­di­dates from the To­ba­go Peo­ple’s Par­ty, Joel Samp­son (To­ba­go East) and David Thomas (To­ba­go West), con­firmed they will be fil­ing their doc­u­ments to­day.

Al­so do­ing so will be Pro­gres­sive De­mo­c­ra­t­ic Pa­tri­ots (PDP) leader Wat­son Duke, who is hop­ing to cap­ture the To­ba­go East seat, and All To­ba­go Fish­er­folk As­so­ci­a­tion pres­i­dent Cur­tis Dou­glas, who is eye­ing To­ba­go West for the PDP.

In­no­v­a­tive De­mo­c­ra­t­ic Al­liance can­di­dates Kaye Trot­man (To­ba­go West) and Ger­ard Bal­four (To­ba­go East) will al­so file their doc­u­ments, as well as the Uni­ty of the Peo­ple.

Prospec­tive can­di­dates for the Trinidad Hu­man­i­ty Cam­paign, the T&T De­mo­c­ra­t­ic Front and the All Peo­ple’s Par­ty will al­so be vis­it­ing EBC of­fices.