Senior Political Reporter
The People National Movement’s Arima Central candidate, Sheldon “Fish” Garcia, has promised to “net” the district for the PNM in a margin as big as an ocean - and Anika Williams will be replacing veteran PNM councillor Terry Rondon as the candidate for Valencia East-Toco.
These were among the outcomes of screening of PNM nominees for Arima and Sangre Grande on Saturday.
Screening continued yesterday for 40-plus nominees for Tunapuna, which has 16 electoral areas. PNM officials said the party holds 11 of the Tunapuna seats and the UNC has five.
One PNM incumbent, Corey Selvon, did not contest.
Interviews by the PNM screening team, headed by party leader Dr Keith Rowley, were continuing last night. Meanwhile, PNM officials listed the successful nominees for the seven Arima corporations out of the 16 nominees screened.
The successful candidates are: Garcia (Arima Central), Kim Garcia (Arima North East), Shane John (Arima West/O’Meara, Jeniece Scott (Calvary), Linette Shaffie-Ramchanran (Malabar North), Joycelyn Worrell (Malabar South) and Jovan Roberts (Tumpuna).
“Fish” Garcia, who resigned from the UNC in May and rejoined the PNM (with which he’d been associated from 2005 onwards), said yesterday he was grateful to be given an opportunity to continue working with the community, since he had full confidence he would bring the seat “home.” He’d been the only UNC councillor in the PNM-controlled Arima corporation after he won in 2021.
Yesterday, Garcia told the T&T Guardian, “I hit the road campaigning from tomorrow (Tuesday) as I’ve promised the political leader to win by a big margin. I can’t say ‘landslide,” I have to say it will have to be the size of the ocean because ‘Fish’ and ‘ocean’ go together.”
Garcia said he’s confident of the support of UNC voters in the area, as he’s received assurances on this from people who spoke of his performance, rather than party.
Among the 19 nominees for the Sangre Grande corporation’s eight seats, the candidates chosen are: Anika Williams (replacing Rondon in Valencia East Toco), Keva Isaac (replacing Simone Gill in Valencia West), David Elves Guy (replacing Paul Mongolas in Sangre Grande North East), Dave Rambharath (Cumuto Manzanilla), Latoya Lambkin (Vega de Oropouche), Darrin Buchoon (Sangre Grande South), M. Mohan (Manzanilla-Fishing Pond) and Alicia Thomas (North West).
Yesterday, Rondon, 73, said he was confident his successor, Williams, a CEPEP field officer, would continue the work he had done in his 28 years of service for Toco and environs, and from which he now bids farewell.
He added, “She had been working with me and was my understudy, so in this new phase, I’ll accompany her in campaigning to ‘introduce’ her officially and I’m there to assist wherever and my services are also always available to all colleagues.”
Rondon, who served as Sangre Grande chairman for two terms, noted, “The PNM has four seats in the Sangre Grande corporation and the UNC has four, and I know it will be an extremely keen contest but I stand by the advice I’ve always given everyone—let the people remember you, not before an election but the day after...”
Meanwhile, PNM screening continues this afternoon (Mon) at the Cascadia Hotel in Port-of-Spain for nominees for San Juan and Port-of-Spain.
Tomorrow, nominees for Diego Martin will be screened at the same venue. PNM’s screening will then halt for this week.
The UNC, meanwhile, screened 65 nominees for Couva and Chaguanas from Saturday into early yesterday morning. Tomorrow (Tue), they will screen 80-plus nominees for Princes Town and Mayaro.
The UNC’s process involves a triple layer of scrutiny, including from the MPs of the area screened, constituency executive and UNC’s screening team headed by Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar.