At­tor­ney Ka­reem Mar­celle has been se­lect­ed by the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) to serve as a Port-of-Spain City Cor­po­ra­tion al­der­man fol­low­ing last month’s res­ig­na­tion of Dr Knogshiek Achong Low.

Mar­celle, 29, could not say what led to Achong Low’s res­ig­na­tion af­ter serv­ing the cor­po­ra­tion for six months.

Mar­celle said the Elec­tions and Bound­aries Com­mis­sion (EBC) de­clared him an al­der­man last month.

Dur­ing a tele­phone in­ter­view with Guardian Me­dia over the week­end, Mar­celle said he was nom­i­nat­ed “from the list of ex­ist­ing al­der­men” by the PNM to fill the po­si­tion.

He said PNM’s po­lit­i­cal leader Dr Kei­th Row­ley and the ex­ec­u­tive of the par­ty de­cid­ed who they want­ed to re­place Achong Low.

Mar­celle said he was their choice.

Chair­man of the EBC Mark Ramk­er­rysingh in a let­ter dat­ed Jan­u­ary 31, 2024 to the CEO of the Port-of-Spain Cor­po­ra­tion An­nette Sta­ple­ton-Seaforth in­formed her that “in ac­cor­dance with the pro­vi­sions of Sec­tion 13(13) of the Mu­nic­i­pal Cor­po­ra­tions Act chap­ter 25:04, Mar­celle whose name ap­pears on the rel­e­vant list of al­der­men of the PNM is the can­di­date nom­i­nat­ed to fill the va­cant po­si­tion of Al­der­man.”

The let­ter, in essence, de­clared Mar­celle of Beetham Gar­dens an al­der­man.

At the cor­po­ra­tion’s next statu­to­ry meet­ing, Mar­celle will be sworn in.

Mar­celle is the sec­ond res­i­dent of Beetham Gar­dens to be ap­point­ed a PNM al­der­man.

His moth­er Sher­ma Wil­son who worked in the San Juan/Laven­tille Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion was the first.

A mem­ber of the PNM for the past ten years, Mar­celle said, he was elat­ed to serve.

He thanked the PNM for plac­ing its faith and con­fi­dence in him.

“I have an­swered and ac­cept­ed the call made by my po­lit­i­cal leader for young peo­ple to step for­ward and take re­spon­si­bil­i­ty for our na­tion. I will do so with dig­ni­ty, ho­n­our, in­tegri­ty and pride.”

Pressed if he had in­ten­tions of rep­re­sent­ing the PNM in the up­com­ing gen­er­al elec­tions, Mar­celle said that his im­me­di­ate goals are to fo­cus on his le­gal ca­reer, serve the burgess­es and con­tin­ue his com­mu­ni­ty ac­tivism.

“How­ev­er if called up­on by Dr Row­ley and the par­ty in the fu­ture to serve in any oth­er ca­pac­i­ty, then con­sid­er­a­tion would be giv­en,” he said.