Jennifer Johnson tipped to be new San Fernando Mayor

Prime Minister Patrick Manning made it clear to the Diego Martin and PoS constituencies on Friday that the three principles underlying the choices for Mayors, Chairmen and aldermen for the nine PNM-controlled Local Gov-ernment bodies would be age, ethnic balance and management competence.

As the party seeks to reflect these criteria, several names emerged yesterday as the leaders for the various councils. Sources said former NAR Minister Jennifer Johnson is one of two candidates shortlisted to become San Fern-ando’s new Mayor. The other nominee is Imtaz Ahamad, chairman of the South West Regio-nal Health Authority. Sources said yesterday however that Ahamad was not interested in the position and that Johnson, who had been steadfast in her support for the party for several years, was likely to get the nod.

In Port-of-Spain, the choice is between the young 35-year-old Joel London and the incumbent Murchison Brown. London, a human resource analyst employed at TSTT, holds a management degree and is also a second-year law student. If  the dreadlocked but soft spoken and deeply religious London is selected, it would represent a major turnaround for the party, having chosen older members for the top post in the capital city. Sources said that the Port-of-Spain constituencies, which meet the screening committee on Friday afternoon, presented Brown and Noreen Fergurson as the two aldermen. However they were sent back by the screening committee. Sources said Rishi Lakhan is likely to remain as deputy Mayor.

Businessman Steve Castagne is favoured by the screening committee to become Chairman of the Diego Martin Regional Corp-oration. Sources said that the Diego Martin constituencies, which were also sent back by the screening committee, were united in their determination not to return attorney at law Bridgit Annisette-George.  They suggested Lindon George as a possible alderman. But the screening committee had other ideas. Sources said that Prime Minister Patrick Manning, as chairman of the screening committee met with constituencies to hear their recommendations. Sources said that Manning in seeking to guide constituencies, suggested that serious consideration would be giving to young persons because a lot of young people supported the PNM. He also said that another major criteria would be ethnic background because of the continuing necessity for the party to achieve cross-ethnic appeal and representation. He also said that in view of the greater autonomy and responsibility that Local Government bodies were likely to get, persons with demonstrated management competence would be preferred. He cited knowledge in areas such as administration, law, finance and business.