Shas­tri Boodan

Free­lance Cor­re­spon­dent

In two weeks, Gov­ern­ment Sen­a­tor Richie Sookhai will face the Screen­ing Com­mit­tee of the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment as the can­di­date for Ch­agua­nas East.

Speak­ing with Guardian Me­dia on Mon­day, Sookhai said he was the on­ly nom­i­nee put for­ward by the PNM Ch­agua­nas East con­stituen­cy ex­ec­u­tive and was giv­en the green light by the 21 par­ty groups in the con­stituen­cy. He said once he was screened, he planned to hit the ground run­ning.

“My ma­jor fo­cus would be on youth de­vel­op­ment. The PNM is about build­ing the next gen­er­a­tion and I want to en­sure the peo­ple of Ch­agua­nas East ben­e­fit from prop­er rep­re­sen­ta­tion. I want to do more for the peo­ple,” Sookhai said.

Sookhai, 45, was ap­point­ed a Gov­ern­ment Sen­a­tor in the 12th Re­pub­li­can Par­lia­ment. He was ap­point­ed Min­is­ter in the Min­istry of Works and Trans­port on April 14, 2023. Pri­or to this, Sookhai was the sit­ting pres­i­dent of the Ch­agua­nas Cham­ber of In­dus­try and Com­merce and the man­ag­ing di­rec­tor of Sookhai’s Diesel Ser­vices Lim­it­ed.

He suc­ceed­ed Chris­tine Kan­ga­loo as a Gov­ern­ment Sen­a­tor in Jan­u­ary 2023, as she re­signed to be­come Pres­i­dent.

The last PNM can­di­date to take the Ch­agua­nas East seat was Mustapha Ab­dul Hamid, who was elect­ed in 2007.

The UNC has been in con­trol of the seat since 2010, when Stephen Cadiz took it home. He was fol­lowed by Fazal Karim in 2015 and Van­dana Mo­hit in 2020. Mo­hit is al­so the in­cum­bent MP.

The PNM opened nom­i­na­tions for the 2025 gen­er­al elec­tion in June for sev­er­al op­po­si­tion-held con­stituen­cies, in­clud­ing Ch­agua­nas East, Ma­yaro, St Au­gus­tine, Fyz­abad, Pointe-a-Pierre, San Juan/Barataria, Moru­ga/Table­land and Ca­roni East. Those nom­i­na­tions closed on Au­gust 15.