PNM rejects Penny Beckles a second time

Pennelope Beckles was the MP for Arima in the last Parliament and the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives.

So many thought it was a given that she would be chosen again to run in Arima; they were wrong.

The PNM screening committee decided it wanted "a youth" for the constituency and chose former Senator Laurel Lezama, daugher-in-law of top PNM adviser and media boss Louis Lee Sing.

That didn't go down well, but PNMites said they were willing to work with the newcomer.

Then, when the selected candidate for the La Horquetta/Talparo constituency had to drop out because she has dual citizenship and is therefore not qualified to stand, Beckles made another attempt to get in.

The Constituency asked her to stand for nomination and she showed up a Balisier House seeking the nomination for the seat, but at the end of the process the party again rejected Beckles, choosing instead Nadra Nathai-Gyan.

She ran unsuccessfully in St Augustine in the 2007 and was defeated by the UNC's Vasant Bharath.

Last week the PNM screened Nathai-Gyan for the St Ann’s East seat but handed it to another candidate.

The party has had a rough time selecting 41 candidates and faced protests from several areas about the manner in which it chose representatives. Some prospective candidates were rejected despite strong support and others just dropped out.

At least one other had to go because of the dual citizenship issue, another didn't want to give up his job to run for the party and cabinet minister Peter Taylor bowed out after constituents told him they didn't want him.

The party’s central executive has the final say on who will contest the May 24 election and all the candidates in the lineup so far are considered "provisional" until their selection is ratified by the central executive.

Keith Rowley was forced to cancel the launch of his campaign in Diego Martin West Thursday night because the party said his candidacy was not formal and therefore he was not authorised to hold such a meeting.

It's not even clear if he will be the candidate and if he is there is still the question about whether he will speak on the PNM national platform.

The party hopes to complete its selection process by Friday in time for its presentation of the full slate at a rally in Woodford Square on Sunday.

The opposition will make its presentation of candidates on Sunday as well at a rally at the Mid Centre Mall, Chaguanas.