Shal­iza Has­sanali

The Peo­ple's Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) will start screen­ing can­di­dates for the lo­cal gov­ern­ment elec­tions next month.The an­nounce­ment was made by par­ty chair­man Franklin Khan at yes­ter­day's press con­fer­ence at Bal­isi­er House, Port-of-Spain.Khan said po­lit­i­cal leader Dr Kei­th Row­ley made an of­fi­cial call to all 39 con­stituen­cies at gen­er­al coun­cil for the start of nom­i­na­tion for can­di­dates who will be screened by him (Row­ley).

As part of the par­ty's or­gan­i­sa­tion struc­ture, Khan said, a cam­paign man­ag­er and 14 re­gion­al co-or­di­na­tors have been ap­point­ed. Their names were not dis­closed.The PNM con­trols three cor­po­ra­tions: San Juan/Laven­tille, Point Fortin and Port-of-Spain.Some of the qual­i­ties the PNM will be look­ing for in a can­di­date are will­ing­ness to serve, deco­rum and in­tegri­ty."We don't want any­one with a shady past," Khan said.

Com­ing out of the THA elec­tion, Khan said, their slate of 134 can­di­dates must show gen­der, age, eth­nic and re­li­gious bal­ance.Khan said last year the PNM changed its con­sti­tu­tion, where they dis­band­ed the ve­to pow­er of the par­ty leader over the choice of can­di­dates."We have now vest­ed that pow­er in the en­tire screen­ing com­mit­tee. So this is the first time we will be test­ing the new wa­ters, as it were, and to show the par­ty is more de­mo­c­ra­t­ic. So now the con­stituen­cy ex­ec­u­tive will have a greater say in can­di­dates."

Ad­mit­ting the PNM per­formed bad­ly in the last elec­tion, Khan said, if it cap­tures sev­en of the 14 cor­po­ra­tions or more than 67 seats, the par­ty can claim to have won the elec­tion."But our tar­get is to win more than sev­en cor­po­ra­tions."