Gail Alexan­der

PNM Sen­ate leader Pen­ne­lope Beck­les-Robin­son is chal­leng­ing the PNM's in­cum­bent la­dy vice chair­man, Don­na Cox, for the post in the par­ty's up­com­ing ex­ec­u­tive elec­tions, PNM of­fi­cials said yes­ter­day. Nom­i­na­tions for the elec­tions closed on Mon­day. They will take place on Oc­to­ber 28 when the PNM holds its an­nu­al con­ven­tion at the Grand Stand, Queen's Park Sa­van­nah, Port-of-Spain, in­stead of the tra­di­tion­al venue, the Ch­aguara­mas Con­ven­tion Cen­tre.

Sev­er­al two-year ex­ec­u­tive posts are up for con­test. The posts of leader, chair­man, vice chair­man and gen­er­al sec­re­tary are not be­ing con­test­ed, since they are five-year posts. Elec­tions of­fi­cer Li­nus Rogers is be­ing chal­lenged by Fos­ter Cum­mings; youth of­fi­cer, Nile­ung Hy­po­lite, is be­ing chal­lenged by for­mer hold­er, Dane Wil­son, Point Fortin deputy may­or Ab­don Ma­son and Neil Parsan­lal, who held the post of ed­u­ca­tion of­fi­cer.

For­mer fi­nance min­is­ter Con­rad Enill is con­test­ing the post of ed­u­ca­tion of­fi­cer. Oni­ka May­ers and Yolan­da George of To­ba­go, are among those con­test­ing the post of youth of­fi­cer, fe­male, held by Lau­rel Leza­ma-Lee Sing, Labour of­fi­cer in­cum­bent Jen­nifer Bap­tiste-Primus is de­fend­ing the post against An­drew Alves of the Pointe-a-Pierre unit, of­fi­cials said.

Sev­er­al po­si­tions are un­op­posed. These in­clude the post of pub­lic re­la­tions of­fi­cer (held by Faris Al-Rawi); op­er­a­tions of­fi­cer (Irene Hinds); as­sis­tant gen­er­al sec­re­tary (Daniel Dook­ie) and field of­fi­cer (In­dar Paras­ram). Cou­va busi­ness­man, Nal Ram­s­ingh, who con­sid­ered con­test­ing the PRO po­si­tion, dropped out, of­fi­cials said.