Kevon Felmine

For­mer prime min­is­ter and Peo­ple's Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) leader Patrick Man­ning is watch­ing his health as he con­tem­plates whether he will once again con­test the San Fer­nan­do East Con­stituen­cy in the 2015 gen­er­al elec­tions.

At a spe­cial gen­er­al mem­ber­ship meet­ing at the Pleas­antville Com­mu­ni­ty Cen­tre yes­ter­day, Man­ning said he will give a def­i­nite an­swer in due course af­ter talk­ing with PNM leader Dr Kei­th Row­ley, who is cur­rent­ly out of the coun­try. Man­ning's mes­sage was re­layed through for­mer pub­lic util­i­ties min­is­ter Mustapha Ab­dul Hamid. Ab­dul Hamid told the meet­ing that Man­ning, who has had a speech im­ped­i­ment and prob­lems with walk­ing since suf­fer­ing stroke, said he is not rul­ing out an­oth­er five years as an MP but would not make a def­i­nite de­ci­sion un­til ear­ly next year.Ab­dul Hamid as­sured that Man­ning could al­so get the job done al­though he was still re­cov­er­ing from the stroke.

A par­ty of­fi­cial told the T&T Guardian that Man­ning and Row­ley spoke about con­test­ing the seat two weeks ago, but Man­ning said he need­ed time to as­sess his health. The of­fi­cial said al­though the au­di­ence erupt­ed in­to loud cheers yes­ter­day, many were dis­ap­point­ed that he was yet to make a de­ci­sion. But the of­fi­cial added that not all par­ty mem­bers were in favour of Man­ning re­turn­ing for elec­tion be­cause of his health.

Man­ning suf­fered a stroke on Jan­u­ary 23, 2012, which paral­ysed his right side and af­fect­ed his speech. He was on leave from Par­lia­ment in 2012 and 2013, hav­ing sought med­ical care in Cu­ba and the US, be­fore re­turn­ing ear­li­er this year. Man­ning is cur­rent­ly the longest serv­ing par­lia­men­tar­i­an at age 68 and has rep­re­sent­ed his con­stituen­cy since 1971.