JavaScript is disabled in your web browser or browser is too old to support JavaScript. Today almost all web pages contain JavaScript, a scripting programming language that runs on visitor's web browser. It makes web pages functional for specific purposes and if disabled for some reason, the content or the functionality of the web page can be limited or unavailable.

Tuesday, July 8, 2025

Hinds out of Laventille West race

by

Gail Alexander
222 days ago
20241129
National Security Minister Fitzgerald Hinds

National Security Minister Fitzgerald Hinds

It is of­fi­cial—Fitzger­ald Hinds is out of the race for the Laven­tille West can­di­da­cy.

Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley yes­ter­day con­firmed that Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Hinds had with­drawn his con­sent to be nom­i­nat­ed as the can­di­date for Laven­tille West. The PM said he had “no hand” in it.

Row­ley did so at yes­ter­day’s post-Cab­i­net me­dia brief­ing af­ter word that Hinds this week with­drew the con­sent he ini­tial­ly gave for nom­i­na­tion. Hinds will there­fore not be screened when Laven­tille West presents its nom­i­nees to PNM’s screen­ing team on Mon­day. Those to be pre­sent­ed may on­ly be Port-of-Spain al­der­man, at­tor­ney Ka­reem Mar­celle, and Dr Kadelle Jes­samy.

Hinds has been Laven­tille West MP since Sep­tem­ber 2015 and was al­so re-elect­ed in 2020. Pri­or to be­ing MP for that area, Hinds was elect­ed Laven­tille East/Mor­vant MP in 1995, serv­ing in that ca­pac­i­ty for 12 years. For the up­com­ing gen­er­al elec­tion, Hinds had in­di­cat­ed in­ter­est in nom­i­na­tion to the Laven­tille West PNM ex­ec­u­tive in Sep­tem­ber. He had re­ceived nom­i­na­tion sup­port from par­ty group 69, and this was an­nounced by the unit in Oc­to­ber. They al­so an­nounced that Jes­samy was nom­i­nat­ed by par­ty group 25.

Mar­celle was al­so list­ed as a nom­i­nee. Sub­se­quent­ly, Mar­celle re­ceived 38 votes from a Laven­tille West Women’s League meet­ing where Hinds re­ceived one vote and three ab­stained. That meet­ing, which was leaked on so­cial me­dia, was lat­er an­nulled. The con­stituen­cy ex­ec­u­tive man­dat­ed it be held again due to “ir­reg­u­lar­i­ties”, in­clud­ing a lack of no­ti­fi­ca­tion to oth­er units.

When it was re-held, Mar­celle re­ceived 106 votes, Hinds 78, and Jes­samy got one. How­ev­er, Hinds re­ceived sup­port from the Laven­tille West Youth League with 18 votes to Mar­celle’s 14 and Jes­samy’s four.

Last week, the Laven­tille West ex­ec­u­tive de­cid­ed to rec­om­mend Hinds for the can­di­da­cy. Par­ty ex­ec­u­tives can make their rec­om­men­da­tion on their “pick” for a can­di­date, but all nom­i­nees are screened, and the PNM’s screen­ing team led by Row­ley has the fi­nal de­ci­sion.

But yes­ter­day, word was cir­cu­lat­ed by PNM ac­tivists of a meet­ing of PNM’s Laven­tille West ex­ec­u­tive held on Wednes­day and that Hinds had with­drawn fol­low­ing “fam­i­ly dis­cus­sions.”

The sit­u­a­tion was aired wide­ly on so­cial me­dia, in­clud­ing the al­le­ga­tion that Hinds was “spo­ken to.”

Laven­tille West chair­man Richard Wal­cott did not com­ment on this. At yes­ter­day’s me­dia brief­ing, Row­ley said he had heard of the with­draw­al. He said Hinds was in Cab­i­net ear­li­er, and they had not spo­ken of it, so he had no fur­ther in­for­ma­tion.

Row­ley added, “But I think it’s con­firmed: Min­is­ter Hinds will not be con­tin­u­ing to of­fer him­self as a can­di­date for his con­stituen­cy. No, I had no hand in it.” Row­ley said he was not en­tire­ly sur­prised at the de­vel­op­ment.

“I’m a lit­tle dis­ap­point­ed be­cause Mr Hinds has been with us for a long time. He’s been a very loy­al, hard-work­ing MP and there­fore he’s com­ing to the end of his ser­vice. There’s usu­al­ly sad­ness in part­ing. But I’m sure he’ll be around with us in the par­ty if not in the Gov­ern­ment.”

Row­ley said he had not spo­ken to Hinds yet, “But I knew of his feel­ings along the way, but I’m not sur­prised that he’d have ... you see, when you come to a point some­times, you come to a cross­road, and you have to make a de­ci­sion, and some­times the an­gles of the cross­road are quite sharp. I saw it some­where in the pa­per, I think ... that (it’s) ‘fam­i­ly dis­cus­sions’ or some­thing like that. I too have a fam­i­ly, and I know how these things go.”

Af­ter the is­sue with the leaked Laven­tille West Women’s League meet­ing, Hinds said some women vot­ing to re­ject him as MP was part of a “de­sign” and that at nom­i­na­tion time, the best and the worst be­hav­iour of some arise.

He said he had re­ceived feed­back from some Women’s League mem­bers and the con­stituen­cy ex­ec­u­tive chair­man that the elec­tion was not fair. He had said that at this time in the PNM’s life, there were “dif­fer­ent per­son­al­i­ties with dif­fer­ent am­bi­tions and mo­ti­va­tions, and it’s a very com­pet­i­tive en­vi­ron­ment.”

Less than 24 hours be­fore Row­ley’s con­fir­ma­tion, Hinds told Guardian Me­dia he was look­ing for­ward to Mon­day’s PNM screen­ing as he con­tin­ued to have re­sound­ing sup­port from his con­stituen­cy’s ex­ec­u­tive, 37 par­ty leagues, and many of his con­stituents. He al­so ap­peared un­fazed by his com­pe­ti­tion, Mar­celle and Jesse­my.

Hinds did not re­spond to Guardian Me­dia queries yes­ter­day af­ter Row­ley spoke.

Guardian Me­dia al­so reached out to Mar­celle, who said he will not be com­ment­ing un­til af­ter screen­ing. 


Related articles

Sponsored

Weather

PORT OF SPAIN WEATHER

Sponsored

Today's
Guardian

Publications

A model in a costume from The Lost Tribe’s 2026 presentation Island Circus

A model in a costume from The Lost Tribe’s 2026 presentation Island Circus

KERWIN PIERRE

A model in a costume from The Lost Tribe’s 2026 presentation Island Circus

A model in a costume from The Lost Tribe’s 2026 presentation Island Circus

KERWIN PIERRE

Ringmasters of the Road: Crowds flock to Tribe’s circus-themed band launch

Yesterday
Students, principal and staff of St David’s RC Primary, along with the UWTT and Scotiabank Foundation teams at the handover of steelpans at the school.

Students, principal and staff of St David’s RC Primary, along with the UWTT and Scotiabank Foundation teams at the handover of steelpans at the school.

Students, principal and staff of St David’s RC Primary, along with the UWTT and Scotiabank Foundation teams at the handover of steelpans at the school.

Students, principal and staff of St David’s RC Primary, along with the UWTT and Scotiabank Foundation teams at the handover of steelpans at the school.

Scotiabank Foundation, United Way donate steelpans

Yesterday
The Executive of the National Parang Association 2025-27. Back row, from left: Kervin Preudhomme, assistant secretary; Shaquille Headley, committee member; Cheriese Pierre, committee member; Lisa Lee, trustee; Joanne Briggs, PRO; Yarelis Touissant, committee member; William Calliste, trustee. Front row, from left: Jenais Carter, secretary; Alicia Jaggasar, president; Henrietta Carter, vice president; Joseph Bertrand, youth officer. Missing: Kerrylee Chee Chow, treasurer; Chevone Pierre, committee member.

The Executive of the National Parang Association 2025-27. Back row, from left: Kervin Preudhomme, assistant secretary; Shaquille Headley, committee member; Cheriese Pierre, committee member; Lisa Lee, trustee; Joanne Briggs, PRO; Yarelis Touissant, committee member; William Calliste, trustee. Front row, from left: Jenais Carter, secretary; Alicia Jaggasar, president; Henrietta Carter, vice president; Joseph Bertrand, youth officer. Missing: Kerrylee Chee Chow, treasurer; Chevone Pierre, committee member.

The Executive of the National Parang Association 2025-27. Back row, from left: Kervin Preudhomme, assistant secretary; Shaquille Headley, committee member; Cheriese Pierre, committee member; Lisa Lee, trustee; Joanne Briggs, PRO; Yarelis Touissant, committee member; William Calliste, trustee. Front row, from left: Jenais Carter, secretary; Alicia Jaggasar, president; Henrietta Carter, vice president; Joseph Bertrand, youth officer. Missing: Kerrylee Chee Chow, treasurer; Chevone Pierre, committee member.

The Executive of the National Parang Association 2025-27. Back row, from left: Kervin Preudhomme, assistant secretary; Shaquille Headley, committee member; Cheriese Pierre, committee member; Lisa Lee, trustee; Joanne Briggs, PRO; Yarelis Touissant, committee member; William Calliste, trustee. Front row, from left: Jenais Carter, secretary; Alicia Jaggasar, president; Henrietta Carter, vice president; Joseph Bertrand, youth officer. Missing: Kerrylee Chee Chow, treasurer; Chevone Pierre, committee member.

Jaggasar returns as National Parang president

2 days ago
Charles Town junior drummers and dancers take to the stage

Charles Town junior drummers and dancers take to the stage

Charles Town junior drummers and dancers take to the stage

Charles Town junior drummers and dancers take to the stage

Jamaican Maroons celebrate, question land rights

2 days ago