Po­lit­i­cal an­a­lyst Derek Ram­samooj says the se­lec­tion of Hans Des Vi­gnes as the can­di­date for Diego Mar­tin West is not a sur­pris­ing, but he now must work to win, and main­tain, the favour of the peo­ple in the con­stituen­cy.

Speak­ing on to­day’s edi­tion of CNC3’s The Morn­ing Brew show, the po­lit­i­cal an­a­lyst ex­plained that Des Vi­gnes must demon­strate how his rep­re­sen­ta­tion will dif­fer from that of the out­go­ing MP, Dr Kei­th Row­ley, or how he will con­tin­ue Dr Row­ley’s lega­cy.

“The par­ty will car­ry him to a point,” Ram­samooj ob­serves, “and the in­cum­ben­cy of the Prime Min­is­ter al­so will car­ry him. So, all he’s got to do re­al­ly is to con­nect with the peo­ple—let them get to know him and what he is will­ing to put for­ward to that con­stituen­cy 's de­vel­op­ment.”

The 39-year-old me­dia per­son­al­i­ty was cho­sen over three oth­er nom­i­nees in­clud­ing for­mer tem­po­rary sen­a­tor Yokym­ma Bethelmy, Cur­tis Tou­s­saint and Lese­di Fe­lix.

Des Vi­gnes said he is hit­ting the ground run­ning by walk­ing through the con­stituen­cy to­day, start­ing at Covi­gne Road.

“We are a move­ment,” he told par­ty sup­port­ers out­side Bal­isi­er House last night. “We stand to­geth­er and we will work hard to­geth­er to once again bring home Diego Mar­tin West.”

“Diego Mar­tin West, I pledge to you that you are in good hands,” he added.

In ad­di­tion to the se­lec­tion of Des Vi­gnes as the PNM’s prospec­tive can­di­date for Diego Mar­tin West—fol­low­ing in the foot­steps of Dr Kei­th Row­ley—the par­ty’s Screen­ing Com­mit­tee se­lect­ed sev­er­al oth­er can­di­dates on Mon­day night.

These in­clude in­cum­bent MPs Colm Im­bert for Diego Mar­tin North-East, and Symon De No­bri­ga for Diego Mar­tin Cen­tral.

At­tor­ney at Law San­jiv Bood­hu was al­so se­lect­ed for the Cu­mu­to/Man­zanil­la seat.