Can­di­dates in the June 17 by-elec­tions in Lengua/In­di­an Walk and Quinam/Morne Di­a­blo will to­day file nom­i­na­tion pa­pers with re­turn­ing of­fi­cers in their re­spec­tive ar­eas. So far, it looks like a straight fight be­tween the PNM and the UNC in both elec­toral ar­eas.

The can­di­dates for Quinam/Morne Di­a­blo will present their nom­i­na­tion pa­pers to Elec­tions and Bound­aries Com­mis­sion (EBC) re­turn­ing of­fi­cer Ra­mawa­tee Ram­per­sad-Gan­ga Per­sad, while the can­di­dates for Lengua/In­di­an Walk will present their pa­pers to re­turn­ing of­fi­cer Richard Greenidge.

Lengua/In­di­an Walk is a dis­trict in the Princes Town Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion and Quinam/Morne Di­a­blo is part of the Pe­nal/Debe Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion.

The Lengua/In­di­an Walk by-elec­tion was called fol­low­ing con­tro­ver­sy over the re­sults for that area in the Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment elec­tions last Au­gust which led to no win­ner be­ing de­clared. Ini­tial re­sults showed PNM can­di­date Aut­ley Granthume re­ceiv­ing 1,430 votes, while UNC can­di­date Nicole Gopaul got 1,425 votes.

Af­ter re­counts and ties, the EBC de­clared that fresh elec­tions would have to be held. The UNC legal­ly chal­lenged that de­ci­sion, but that failed in court.

The Quinam/Morne Di­a­blo by-elec­tion be­came nec­es­sary fol­low­ing the death of Coun­cil­lor Diptee Ram­nath last De­cem­ber.

The PNM an­nounced its can­di­dates for the two ar­eas last Fri­day, choos­ing Granthume again for Lengua/In­di­an Walk and An­der­son Nanan for Quinam/Morne Di­a­blo.

Granthume is an or­dained min­is­ter, while Nanan is an em­ploy­ee of the Pe­nal Debe Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion.

The UNC an­nounced its can­di­dates on Mon­day and has again se­lect­ed Gopaul to con­test in Lengua/In­di­an Walk, while Sara Sookdeo will con­test Quinam/Morne Di­a­blo. Gopaul is an ad­min­is­tra­tive as­sis­tant, while Sookdeo is a com­mu­ni­ty ac­tivist.

So far there has been no word of oth­er can­di­dates for the by-elec­tions.

Pa­tri­ot­ic Front (PF) leader Mick­ela Pan­day has not said whether the par­ty will field can­di­dates in the by-elec­tions, al­though she re­cent­ly stirred in­ter­est with a Face­book post stat­ing, “Hope is Com­ing ... A Choice is Com­ing ... stay tuned for more in­for­ma­tion.”

To­mor­row would have been the 91st birth­day of her late fa­ther, UNC founder Bas­deo Pan­day, who died in Jan­u­ary. The par­ty will host an event where trib­utes will be paid to Mr Pan­day and an­nounce­ments will be made. The event has at­tract­ed spec­u­la­tion on so­cial me­dia.

Na­tion­al Trans­for­ma­tion Al­liance (NTA) leader Gary Grif­fith said the par­ty won’t be con­test­ing the by-elec­tions and said there’s been no re­quest from the UNC for lob­by­ing of sup­port.

Pro­gres­sive Em­pow­er­ment Par­ty (PEP) leader Phillip Alexan­der didn’t re­spond to ques­tions about the by-elec­tions. How­ev­er, two weeks ago he post­ed that the PEP will be con­test­ing the next gen­er­al elec­tions alone and is re­turn­ing to its “orig­i­nal pos­ture of build­ing a na­tion­al re­sponse out­side of any oth­er par­ty.”