UNC screening begins Tuesday

The United National Congress will on Tuesday begin screening candidates for the 2010 general election.

It will begin with the selction of candidates for Siparia, Chaguanas West, Caroni East, Cumuto/Manzanilla, Fyzabad, Naparima, Mayaro, Princes Town South/Tableland, Barataria/San Juan and Oropouche East.

It is expected that the incumbents will be running again in all the seats in this group that were held by the party in the 9th Parliament. The PNM holds two of them - Barataria/San Juan and Princes Town South.

The UNC is targeting both seats along with Chagunas East, St Joseph, Pointe-a-Pierre and Tunapuna along with the 15 it held in the last Parliament.

Kamla Persad-Bissessar is planning more than a victory against the People's National Movement (PNM) in the coming general election.

She wants the opposition to beat the PNM leader in the constituency he has held since 1971.

Patrick Manning has represented San Fernando East since he first entered politics and inherited a constituency that was held by Gerard Montano. In 1971 he won unopposed because of the no vote campaign.

In the 1986 election that swept the PNM out of office after 30 years of unbroken rule, Manning was one of three PNM MPs who won their seats. The others were Muriel Mc Donawa-Davidson and Morris Marshall.

Manning later went on to become PNM political leader in a highly controversial leadership campaign in which his main rival was Diego martin West MP Dr Keith Rowley.

Shortly after that McDonawa-Davidson left the PNM and was nominated as a UNC candidate to fight Manning in the 2000 general election, but she pulled out because of ill health and Dr Roodal Moonilal became the candidate.

In 2007 Manning won a landslide against his two opponents. The PNM leader got 10,320 votes, COP's Mervyn Assam was second with 3,247 votes and the UNC Alliance's Ramesh karapan got 1,060.

But Persad-Bissessar is convinced that in a two-way race the opposition candidate can beat Manning.

The opposition is also targeting San Fernando West, currently held by the PNM's Junia Regrello. That was a hotly contested seat in 2007 with Regrello winning with 7,371.

The combined vote of the UNCA and COP was 7257, just 114 short of the PNM vote. The opposition plans to have a single candidate there in 2010 in a seat that was previously held by the UNC's Sadiq Baksh.

Inside sources say the candidate is a popular former PNM Mayor of San Fernando.

The UNC leader has confirmed that there is a deal for a two-way race. "We won’t be fielding candidates in Tobago but we are partnering with COP for screening of candidates for all 39 seats in Trinidad, including Mr Manning’s constituency," she told reporters Friday.

The UNC leader is meeting in Tobago Saturday with Ashford Jack, leader of the Tobago Organisation of the People (TOP). The talks will finalize a deal for TOP to fight the two seats in Tobago, leaving the PNM and the opposition to fight it out over 39 seats in Trinidad.

In 2007 the votes for the combined opposition of COP, the DNA and TUF/DAC was 4,722 in Tobago East; the PNM won the seat with 5.601 votes. The PNM was much stronger in Tobago West where it got 6,850 votes; the combined opposition received only 1,214 votes.