Out­go­ing MP for Ari­ma Pen­ne­lope Beck­les is ex­pect­ed to be cho­sen as the Peo­ple's Na­tion­al Move­ment's can­di­date for La Hor­quet­ta/Tal­paro. Beck­les, who was re­ject­ed as the can­di­date for Ari­ma, said she was called by the con­stituen­cy ex­ec­u­tive in the neigh­bour­ing seat and she was hap­py to ap­pear be­fore the par­ty's screen­ing com­mit­tee at Bal­isi­er House, Port-of-Spain, yes­ter­day. The screen­ing was nec­es­sary be­cause the ap­proved can­di­date Shiv­an Ojah-Ma­haraj had sworn al­le­giance to the Unit­ed States.

An­oth­er PNM can­di­date Bos Shar­ma, cho­sen to rep­re­sent St Au­gus­tine, had re­nounced his British cit­i­zen­ship and as a re­sult would re­main the can­di­date for the seat. Among the oth­er prospec­tive can­di­date screened yes­ter­day were El­don Cok­er and Nadra Nathai Gayan. They both said they were con­fi­dent of be­ing cho­sen to rep­re­sent the PNM. Beck­les said she felt priv­i­leged to be asked to rep­re­sent La Hor­quet­ta/Tal­paro. She said she rep­re­sent­ed "quite a large part" of the con­stituen­cy when it fell with­in the bound­ary of the Ari­ma seat.

"It's an area I am fa­mil­iar with," an up­beat Beck­les added. She said she gave favourable con­sid­er­a­tion to the re­quest which was made by many in the con­stituen­cy. She said the meet­ing was "quite pleas­ant." And 28-year-old Christin Ram­di­al was yes­ter­day se­lect­ed as the PNM's can­di­date for Oropouche East. She said she want­ed to rep­re­sent the peo­ple of the con­stituen­cy to en­sure that they got bet­ter rep­re­sen­ta­tion. UNC deputy po­lit­i­cal leader Roodal Mooni­lal is the in­cum­bent MP for that con­stituen­cy.