About 200 persons filed nomination papers to contest the next General Election under the UNC banner.

This was revealed by UNC Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar during a cottage meeting last night at the Lengua TIA Islamia Primary School.

The deadline to file nominations was last week Thursday, and Mrs Persad-Bissessar says focus has now turned to vetting the forms in order to select the most suitable candidates.

The UNC Leader also zeroed in on the recent EBC Report laid in Parliament, which outlined the renaming of five constituencies, while adjusting the boundaries of 16 constituencies.

The constituency name changes will be as follows:

• Arouca/Maloney > Trincity/Maloney
• D’Abadie/O’Meara > Malabar/Mausica
• Lopinot/Bon Air West > Arouca/Lopinot
• St Joseph > Aranguez/St Joseph
• Pointe-a-Pierre > Claxton Bay

She questioned the rationale behind these decisions, as she accused the EBC of operating in an ad hoc manner.

The UNC’s continued focus on next year’s General Election comes even as persons within the party call for attention to instead be placed on the internal election constitutionally due this year.

Among the vocal are Mayaro MP Rushton Paray and Chairman of the UNC’s Naparima Constituency Executive Shazan Mohammed.