JavaScript is disabled in your web browser or browser is too old to support JavaScript. Today almost all web pages contain JavaScript, a scripting programming language that runs on visitor's web browser. It makes web pages functional for specific purposes and if disabled for some reason, the content or the functionality of the web page can be limited or unavailable.

Saturday, February 15, 2025

UNC PRO Meighoo to be screened for Chaguanas West seat

by

22 days ago
20250124
Dr Kirk Meighoo, UNC public relations officer.

Dr Kirk Meighoo, UNC public relations officer.

Se­nior Po­lit­i­cal Re­porter

The Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) will to­day screen gen­er­al elec­tion nom­i­nees for the Ch­agua­nas West and Na­pari­ma seats held by two so-called “dis­si­dent” MPs. Among those fac­ing the screen­ing pan­el will be pub­lic re­la­tions of­fi­cer (PRO) Kirk Meighoo for Ch­agua­nas West, while for­mer Peo­ple’s Part­ner­ship min­is­ter Kevin Ram­nar­ine is among nom­i­nees for Ma­yaro, the seat of a third “dis­si­dent” MP.

The seats be­ing screened were con­firmed by UNC ex­ec­u­tives. Sources con­firmed Ram­nar­ine re­cent­ly filed a nom­i­na­tion for Ma­yaro.

Screen­ing is tak­ing place at the par­ty’s Ch­agua­nas head­quar­ters. The UNC has so far se­lect­ed can­di­dates for San Fer­nan­do West, Barataria/San Juan, Ch­agua­nas East, To­co/San­gre Grande, St Joseph, Arou­ca/Lopinot, Trinci­ty/Mal­oney and San Fer­nan­do East.

In­cum­bent Ch­agua­nas West MP Di­nesh Ram­bal­ly will al­so be screened. Ram­bal­ly sup­port­ed Ma­yaro MP Rush­ton Paray, whose Unit­ed Pa­tri­ots con­test­ed the na­tion­al ex­ec­u­tive elec­tions last year.

Tabaquite MP Ani­ta Haynes-Al­leyne, Na­pari­ma MP Rod­ney Charles and Cu­mu­to/Man­zanil­la’s Dr Rai Rag­bir al­so sup­port­ed the slate. Haynes-Al­leyne, Paray and Rag­bir have al­so filed nom­i­na­tions in the hope of re-con­test­ing their seats. Charles has bowed out of pol­i­tics.

For Ch­agua­nas West, Ram­bal­ly will con­tend with oth­er nom­i­nees to be screened to­day. Ac­cord­ing to UNC of­fi­cials, the oth­er con­tenders are Meighoo, at­tor­ney/UNC le­gal ad­vis­er Bri­an Baig and for­mer ex­ec­u­tive mem­ber Neil Go­sein. Ef­forts to con­tact Meighoo yes­ter­day were un­suc­cess­ful.

Mean­while, nom­i­nees for Na­pari­ma in­clude Sen­a­tor Jayan­ti Lutch­me­di­al-Ram­di­al, Pe­nal doc­tor Narindra Roop­nar­ine, al­der­man/at­tor­ney Chris Ar­shad Ho­sein and sev­er­al coun­cil­lors, ac­cord­ing to of­fi­cials.

In Ma­yaro, Paray will see a chal­lenge from Ma­yaro/Rio Claro Cor­po­ra­tion chair­man Ray­mond Co­zi­er, for­mer en­er­gy min­is­ter Ram­nar­ine and oth­ers.

Yes­ter­day, Paray de­clined to com­ment on Ram­nar­ine’s en­try in­to the Ma­yaro race. He main­tained he’d done the nec­es­sary work over the past two terms.

“The peo­ple of Ma­yaro are anx­ious­ly await­ing my screen­ing, my can­di­da­cy and even­tu­al re­turn to of­fice.”

The UNC re­ceived sev­er­al nom­i­na­tions for Cu­mu­to/Man­zanil­la, par­ty sources said. There have been claims that Ram­nar­ine al­so filed for that seat.

But UNC Sen­a­tor Damien Ly­der, who’s among the nom­i­nees hop­ing to rep­re­sent that con­stituen­cy, said, “If Mr Ram­nar­ine filed for Cu­mu­to/Man­zanil­la, I wel­come him or any oth­er per­son to do so. The UNC fol­lows de­mo­c­ra­t­ic prin­ci­ples, and we en­cour­age any mem­ber who has an in­ter­est to serve to come for­ward and throw their hat in the ring.

“Kevin is a friend and I have tremen­dous re­spect for him. As such, I’d wish him all the best in all of his en­deav­ours. Ul­ti­mate­ly the choice of can­di­date for any seat rests with UNC’s screen­ing com­mit­tee. I have full con­fi­dence they’ll choose the best can­di­date for the job. The com­mit­tee will have my full sup­port for whomev­er they choose for Cu­mu­to/Man­zanil­la. The main goal is to re­move the most de­struc­tive, dra­con­ian PNM Gov­ern­ment in T&T’s his­to­ry.”


Related articles

Sponsored

Weather

PORT OF SPAIN WEATHER

Sponsored