Jesse Ramdeo

Se­nior Re­porter

jesse.ramdeo@cnc3.co.tt

As the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress seeks to se­lect its strongest team to con­test the up­com­ing Gen­er­al Elec­tion, both a for­mer and cur­rent sen­a­tor were among those of­fer­ing them­selves be­fore the par­ty’s screen­ing com­mit­tee yes­ter­day at the par­ty’s head­quar­ters in Ch­agua­nas.

Wayne Sturge, who was axed from the Op­po­si­tion sen­ate bench in 2017, was among nine nom­i­nees in­ter­ro­gat­ed by the par­ty’s screen­ing com­mit­tee for the To­co/San­gre Grande seat.

Sturge, Daniel Solomon and Rodger Samuel were re­placed then by Sad­dam Ho­sein, Ani­ta Haynes and Tahar­qa Obi­ka in what Per­sad-Bisses­sar said was a move to in­clude youth in the coun­try’s de­mo­c­ra­t­ic process.

Af­ter screen­ing yes­ter­day, how­ev­er, Sturge left the com­pound, avoid­ing in­ter­views with the me­dia.

Mean­while, en­tre­pre­neurs Neil Go­sine, Do­minic Smith, De­vesh Ma­haraj and op­po­si­tion sen­a­tor Anil Roberts were screened for the St Joseph con­stituen­cy.

Speak­ing with the me­dia af­ter he was eval­u­at­ed, Roberts said a col­lab­o­ra­tive ef­fort was need­ed as the gen­er­al elec­tions loom.

“The UNC across Trinidad is go­ing to de­mol­ish the PNM and we are go­ing to re­turn Per­sad-Bisses­sar to the po­si­tion that she de­serves be­cause her po­lices were there for the peo­ple.”

Mara­bel­la West coun­cil­lor John Michael Al­i­bo­cus was the sole nom­i­nee to be re­viewed for San Fer­nan­do East. He told the me­dia he was ready to hit the cam­paign trail and serve with “love”.

The UNC has so far cho­sen two in­cum­bents in Sad­dam Ho­sein (Barataria/San Juan) and Van­dana Mo­hit (Ch­agua­nas East), while for­mer school prin­ci­pal Dr Michael Dowlath was cho­sen for the mar­gin­al San Fer­nan­do West seat.