Gail Alexan­der

Se­nior Po­lit­i­cal Re­porter

One of the UNC’s three coun­cil­lors in the bat­tle­ground San Fer­nan­do cor­po­ra­tion, Mar­cus Gird­harie has re­signed from the par­ty and joined the PNM. Gird­harie al­so filed his nom­i­na­tion with the rul­ing par­ty for the same seat.

This was con­firmed by PNM of­fi­cials as par­ty screen­ing be­gan for the east Trinidad elec­toral dis­tricts of San­gre Grande and Ari­ma yes­ter­day.

A Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment Elec­tions date is ex­pect­ed soon. It must be held with­in three months of the May 18 Privy Coun­cil judg­ment which ruled that the ex­ten­sion of the lo­cal gov­ern­ment term be­yond De­cem­ber 2022 was un­law­ful. The dead­line for the elec­tions is Au­gust 18.

A PNM spokesman con­firmed Gird­harie filed his nom­i­na­tion for Mara­bel­la South /Vista Bel­la–the seat he won for the UNC in the 2019 polls. He had de­feat­ed PNM can­di­date Phillip Mon­tano with 777 votes.

In the 2019 elec­tions, when the PNM and UNC tied for sev­en cor­po­ra­tions each, the PNM re­tained con­trol of the San Fer­nan­do cor­po­ra­tion hold­ing six of the nine seats. The UNC in­creased its hold­ing with three, in­clud­ing Gird­harie in Mara­bel­la South/Vista Bel­la. The UNC al­so nar­row­ly lost the Tarou­ba/Co­coyea seat by 30 votes.

Now, how­ev­er, Gird­harie has be­come the lat­est UNC mem­ber and coun­cil­lor to re­sign from the Op­po­si­tion par­ty and join the PNM. In May for­mer UNC Ari­ma Cen­tral coun­cil­lor Shel­don “Fish” Gar­cia re­signed from the par­ty as did for­mer UNC War­renville/Kel­ly Vil­lage coun­cil­lor Samuel Sankar. Both have func­tioned as in­de­pen­dents since.

Gar­cia re­joined the PNM with which he had been as­so­ci­at­ed in 2005. Both at­tend­ed PNM’s Mal­abar meet­ing and were hailed by plat­form speak­ers in­clud­ing Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley.

For­mer UNC youth of­fi­cer Kaveesh Siew­di­al joined the PNM re­cent­ly.

Gird­harie, of Vista Bel­la, joined UNC in 2014. This is his first term as a coun­cil­lor. The oth­er two UNC coun­cil­lors in the cor­po­ra­tion are Rishi Bal­ram­s­ingh (Les Ef­forts West/La Ro­main) and Kern Ramdin (Mara­bel­la East). The UNC has set its sights on un­seat­ing the PNM in the San Fer­nan­do cor­po­ra­tion.

Gird­harie re­signed from UNC in May. His nom­i­na­tion to con­test Mara­bel­la South/Vista Bel­la for the PNM was filed with the par­ty be­fore the close of the PNM’s nom­i­na­tion last Fri­day. He was un­avail­able yes­ter­day.

A section of the PNM nominees for Arima at the Arima Community Centre awaiting screening last night.

Roberto Codallo

For­mer UNC mem­bers screened in San­gre Grande

 Mean­while, in yes­ter­day’s PNM screen­ing, there were 19 nom­i­nees for the San­gre Grande cor­po­ra­tion which has eight elec­toral seats. PNM of­fi­cials said nom­i­nees in­clud­ed three for­mer UNC mem­bers.

 There were al­so 16 nom­i­nees for the Ari­ma cor­po­ra­tion which has sev­en seats. Apart from Gar­cia’s nom­i­na­tion for Ari­ma Cen­tral, al­so nom­i­nat­ed for the seat is for­mer coun­cil­lor and al­der­man Clint Pam­phile.