Akash Sama­roo

Se­nior Re­porter

akash.sama­roo@cnc3.co.tt

MP Colm Im­bert has re­peat­ed his in­ten­tion to re-con­test the Diego Mar­tin North/East seat while chang­ing his tune on a com­ment he made in 2011 about politi­cians in their 60s

Next Mon­day, Feb­ru­ary 17, the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) will con­duct screen­ing ex­er­cis­es for the fi­nal four con­stituen­cies. One of which will be the one Im­bert cur­rent­ly holds.

He was first elect­ed as Mem­ber of Par­lia­ment for Diego Mar­tin North/East in 1992.

Speak­ing at the sod-turn­ing for the new Elec­tions and Bound­aries Com­mis­sion (EBC) head­quar­ters in St Clair yes­ter­day, Im­bert said he be­lieves he still has work to do in his con­stituen­cy.

“Well, I have some projects to com­plete and things to do in my con­stituen­cy. I have to up­grade the Mar­aval Recre­ation Ground, it’s some­thing I’ve want­ed to do for the longest while. And for one rea­son or the oth­er that project nev­er got off the ground,” he said.

Im­bert added, “Then I want to com­plete the widen­ing of the en­trance in­to Mar­aval through Boissiere Vil­lage, you see where I’m widen­ing the bridge over there? That needs to be com­plet­ed. I have some work to do in the Bagatelle area, to do Phase 2 of the sport­ing com­plex and some wa­ter sup­ply is­sues I want re­solved be­fore I take my ex­it, so this would be my last term.”

But the 67-year-old was re­mind­ed of a quote he gave to the me­dia on De­cem­ber 18, 2011, when he said, “I per­son­al­ly think when some­body is in their late 60s, they should re­al­ly step aside and al­low a younger per­son to come for­ward. I think that’s re­al­ly stretch­ing it. I would be gone long be­fore 65.”

But Im­bert smiled and said, “I would quote the words of the ir­re­place­able Bas­deo Pan­day, on­ly a dead man can­not change his mind.”