Whether or not she gets the nod to en­ter Par­lia­ment to­day, Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress Ch­agua­nas West can­di­date Khadi­jah Ameen is now head­ed to­wards an­oth­er " in­sti­tu­tion"–she's en­gaged.The UNC's by-elec­tion hope­ful yes­ter­day got en­gaged to sales rep­re­sen­ta­tive Mi­tra Ram­per­sad.Ameen 32, is said to have known Ram­per­sad since both were stu­dents at the Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies' St Au­gus­tine cam­pus.

The young cou­ple, decked in tra­di­tion­al East In­di­an fin­ery, be­came en­gaged at the Char­lieville Shiv Mandir in Ch­agua­nas.Ram­per­sad promised to be at his fi­ancee's side no mat­ter what to­day's out­come would be. "I'll be there for her," Ram­per­sad said.Ameen said no wed­ding date has yet been set since her fo­cus at the mo­ment is to­day's Ch­agua­nas West by-elec­tion. She added that "win, lose or draw," she was go­ing for­ward.

Ameen said last week that she had been mar­ried for five years sev­er­al years ago to one Nigel Ros­tant and was sub­se­quent­ly di­vorced. She said she had not changed her name since the "mar­riage ex­pired" be­fore her ID card did.