Gail Alexan­der

If a com­plaint is made to to­day's Peo­ple's Na­tion­al Move­ment's (PNM) gen­er­al coun­cil about la­dy vice-chair­man Pen­ne­lope Beck­les-Robin­son's re­cent ap­pear­ance at a Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) cur­ry-duck lime, it will have to be dis­cussed be­fore any de­ci­sion for dis­ci­pli­nary ac­tion or oth­er­wise, says PNM gen­er­al sec­re­tary Ash­ton Ford.Ford made the com­ment as he elab­o­rat­ed on the PNM's lat­est po­si­tion on Beck­les-Robin­son' move to at­tend the UNC lime at Debe last week­end.

Both Beck­les-Robin­son and UNC deputy leader Roodal Mooni­lal de­fend­ed it as an in­no­cent in­vi­ta­tion to lime with friends, but PNM mem­bers were of­fend­ed by her de­ci­sion so soon af­ter she was re­placed in the Sen­ate.Beck­les-Robin­son said the Fun Splash park where it was held was owned by PNM gen­er­al coun­cil mem­ber Dr Vi­jay Ram­lal and she was in the area and had dropped in.

How­ev­er, Ford said PNM leader Dr Kei­th Row­ley and chair­man Franklin Khan both at­tend­ed a youth league func­tion held the same day and all mem­bers of the ex­ec­u­tive were told of that func­tion. But, Ford said, Beck­les-Robin­son didn't at­tend the PNM func­tion.

Ford said Beck­les-Robin­son's at­ten­dance at the UNC lime raised ques­tions about sup­port, par­tic­u­lar­ly in the at­mos­phere of the im­pend­ing PNM lead­er­ship elec­tion. Rules for that will be re­vealed at to­day's gen­er­al coun­cil meet­ing, but an elec­tion date is un­like­ly to be an­nounced. Khan said the elec­tion would be in the first half of 2014.

Ford said: "At­tend­ing an event like that, peo­ple don't know where you stand. Ms Beck­les hasn't de­nied she may be con­test­ing the lead­er­ship and she hasn't de­nied Jack Warn­er's state­ment that he couldn't say 'yea' or 'nay' whether she was to be ILP's St Joseph by-elec­tion can­di­date."

While Ford couldn't say whether Beck­les-Robin­son's at­ten­dance at the UNC event would be dis­cussed at to­day's gen­er­al coun­cil meet­ing, or if she had breached any rules, he said if any com­plaint on the mat­ter was made to the coun­cil, it would have to be dis­cussed and mem­bers would have to say whether to send it for dis­ci­pli­nary team scruti­ny.Ford not­ed that the PNM's con­sti­tu­tion bars any­one from ap­pear­ing on an­oth­er par­ty's plat­form or bring­ing the par­ty in­to dis­re­pute. Ex­pul­sion is au­to­mat­ic for those breach­es, he said.

He said the PNM cen­tral ex­ec­u­tive last week ex­pelled a woman for be­ing a south can­di­date for the New Na­tion­al Vi­sion par­ty (led by Fuad Abu Bakr) in the re­cent lo­cal gov­ern­ment polls.Ford said Beck­les-Robin­son's at­ten­dance at the UNC event was dif­fer­ent from Row­ley's at­tend­ing the fu­ner­al of Nel­son Man­dela with the Prime Min­is­ter, since that was state busi­ness.Beck­les-Robin­son didn't an­swer calls yes­ter­day.

But Dr Bose Shar­ma, of the To Pre­serve the Bal­isi­er Group, which in­tends mount­ing a chal­lenge to Row­ley's lead­er­ship, de­fend­ed Beck­les-Robin­son's at­ten­dance at the UNC event.Shar­ma said: "If you can't frater­nise ca­su­al­ly with peo­ple, what is pol­i­tics and rights of democ­ra­cy com­ing to in T&T? Dr Row­ley can go to South Africa with the Prime Min­is­ter and be pic­tured with her at var­i­ous events, smil­ing, yet Mrs Beck­les can't at­tend a so­cial event?"

Shar­ma, who said the group is still ex­am­in­ing can­di­date choic­es, said it wants to hear what the PNM's elec­tion rules will be, as well as a date for the poll, be­fore an­nounc­ing its se­lec­tion. "TPTB would like fair, free and trans­par­ent elec­tions, prop­er vot­ers' reg­is­tra­tion process, time­ly is­sue of the vot­ers' list to can­di­dates and for ir­reg­u­lar­i­ties to be dealt with speed­i­ly," he said.Shar­ma said the group didn't want the elec­tion to de­gen­er­ate in­to open war­fare as the UNC's did in 2010.

"Guide­lines are nec­es­sary since we've al­ready heard one ra­dio host warn­ing about 'files' he has on Mrs Beck­les and the like. Some are act­ing as if there shouldn't be any con­test­ing can­di­dates, but that wouldn't en­sure democ­ra­cy," he said.