Gail Alexan­der

?A con­fi­dent PNM Diego Mar­tin West Kei­th Row­ley is now await­ing word from Prime Min­is­ter Patrick Man­ning-led PNM screen­ing com­mit­tee af­ter Row­ley faced Man­ning in yes­ter­day's screen­ing process.

"I am very con­fi­dent that the process is now at work...So let's see," Row­ley said. He said this amid tears, hugs, kiss­es and shouts of en­cour­age­ment from sup­port­ers out­side PNM's Bal­isi­er House, yes­ter­day. Row­ley, who ar­rived at 5 pm for screen­ing, was mobbed by a large con­tin­gent of PNM Diego Mar­tin West sup­port­ers who had ar­rived as ear­ly as 3.30 pm. "We want he!" said one bux­om woman. Row­ley was the first to be screened out of nom­i­nees for five con­stituen­cies. He emerged from the screen­ing process af­ter on­ly 15 min­utes and was again mobbed by en­thu­si­as­tic sup­port­ers. He said there had been wide-rang­ing ques­tions put to him by the screen­ing com­mit­tee, in­clud­ing Man­ning. PNM of­fi­cials said Row­ley had been asked by Man­ning about his com­mit­ment. They al­so said the screen­ing team sought to ob­tain as­sur­ances about cur­rent in­quiries un­der way and whether any­thing might be re­vealed lat­er on, on Row­ley's side, that could af­fect the par­ty's im­age. When Row­ley's ex­ec­u­tive emerged from meet­ing with the screen­ing com­mit­tee, act­ing Diego Mar­tin West chair­man Sigler Jack said the screen­ing com­mit­tee had promised to get back to the con­stituen­cy ex­ec­u­tive.

He said he could not stay how long the com­mit­tee's de­lib­er­a­tions would take. He said the ex­ec­u­tive had not been told to look for an­oth­er can­di­date. "We just have to wait till the process is com­plet­ed...It was a nor­mal process," Jack said. "The in­ter­view was a nor­mal process. It took about 15 min­utes. What I can say is we were not sent back to look for a can­di­date, and that in it­self is a very good sign. So I am qui­et­ly con­fi­dent we will get Dr Row­ley. "The in­ter­view was am­i­ca­ble, very nice in a very re­laxed at­mos­phere." He added Row­ley an­swered all the ques­tions put to him. Af­ter Row­ley's screen­ing, his col­league, ex-MP Fitzger­ald Hinds, came to Bal­isi­er House around 7 pm say­ing he had got news Row­ley had been "suc­cess­ful­ly screened." "That's ex­cel­lent news. The se­lec­tion of Dr Row­ley gives the PNM hope for the fu­ture. I can see clear­ly now," Hinds said. Al­so be­ing screened yes­ter­day were Point Fortin nom­i­nees, in­cum­bent MP Paula Gopee-Scoon and Nigel Mi­nors. The ex­ec­u­tive has rec­om­mend­ed the in­cum­bent. Two nom­i­nees had dropped out re­cent­ly and the ex­ec­u­tive met on the is­sue on Mon­day, with Gopee-Scoon re­ceiv­ing the ma­jor­i­ty back­ing sup­port from con­stituen­cy groups. Af­ter the screen­ing, Gopee-Scoon said she was con­fi­dent. Paul Cromwell, sec­re­tary of the ex­ec­u­tive, said the unit would be told who will be cho­sen in "one or two days."

PNM Point Fortin sources have tipped Gopee-Scoon to get the nod. Gopee-Scoon ar­rived at Bal­isi­er House yes­ter­day, ac­com­pa­nied by a large con­tin­gent of sup­port­ers with mu­si­cal ac­com­pa­ni­ment from par­ty group 14. Al­so be­ing screened last night were nom­i­nees for the con­stituen­cies of Siparia (four nom­i­nees, in­clud­ing Siparia Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion chair­man Vidya De­ok­iesingh), Fyz­abad (Joel Primus and Mar­sha Bai­ley), Princes Town North (three nom­i­nees, in­clud­ing An­warie Ramkissoon), and St Au­gus­tine (nom­i­nees Es­sau Mo­hammed and Dr Bose Shar­ma). So far, the rul­ing par­ty has screened nom­i­nees for 36 con­stituen­cies and was yet to com­plete those for the two To­ba­go seats. Nom­i­nees are Ter­rence Williams (To­ba­go West) and Ren­nie Du­mas (To­ba­go East). De­ci­sions are al­so pend­ing for sev­er­al seats, in­clud­ing Ari­ma, St Ann's East, Princes Town South/Table­land, Cu­mu­to Man­zanil­la, Ma­yaro and La Hor­quet­ta Tal­paro.