Former Member of Parliament for San Fernando West, Faris Al-Rawi, along with four other prospective candidates, filed their nomination papers on Friday.
Accompanied by dozens of supporters dressed in red and chanting his name, Mr. Al-Rawi submitted his nomination papers at the San Fernando North Community Centre.
He expressed pride in what the People’s National Movement (PNM) has achieved over the past ten years in the constituency.
“I am very pleased to have seen the expenditure of close to $2.5 billion in San Fernando and to have employed thousands of people. The mission right now is to get the job done.”
He highlighted the ongoing expansion of the second city, driven by much-needed infrastructure projects.
“We have delivered to the most vulnerable. We have delivered urban regeneration and renewal. You can see it from right at this vantage point. We are insistent upon making sure that San Fernando continues to shine with thousands of jobs.”
Mr. Al-Rawi also promised to meet the housing needs of his constituents if re-elected.
“Very importantly, the HDC stock renovation of our eleven communities, HDC communities in San Fernando West, nine of them are over sixty years old. And whilst we could not get to the deep delivery of renovation there because we wanted to do the delivery out of squatting, and because we did the urban regeneration to create the jobs so that people could buy homes, the promise is that we will deliver on our HDC improvement, and we will target the people of San Fernando that need housing.”
Four other candidates also filed their papers on Friday for the San Fernando West constituency: Dr. Michael Dowlath from the United National Congress (UNC), Ninka Ramnanan from the Patriotic Front, Katryna Browne from the National Coalition of Trinidad and Tobago for Transformation, and Dr. Kevin Sarran of the National Transformation Alliance (NTA).