Vot­ing for a new na­tion­al ex­ec­u­tive of the Peo­ple's Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) be­gan yes­ter­day morn­ing when spe­cial elec­tions were al­lowed to cast their bal­lot one week ahead of the par­ty's May 18 in­ter­nal polls.Vot­ing start­ed at the sched­uled 8 am and con­clud­ed at 6 pm at the par­ty's Bal­isi­er House head­quar­ters.

Vice chair­man of the Elec­tions Su­per­vi­so­ry Com­mit­tee, for­mer Port-of-Spain May­or Murchi­son Brown said vot­ing pro­ceed­ed smooth­ly with no un­to­ward in­ci­dent. He said vot­ing was slow but steady with just over 100 bal­lots cast by 3 pm.Brown said the spe­cial elec­tors were life mem­bers, mem­bers who will be work­ing on elec­tion day, can­di­dates and mem­bers who will be abroad on that day.

Dr Kei­th Row­ley is seek­ing re-elec­tion as po­lit­i­cal leader. His slate has most of the in­cum­bents, while for­mer sen­a­tor Pen­ne­lope Beck­les-Robin­son is chal­leng­ing him for the lead­er­ship of the par­ty.It is the first time the par­ty was con­duct­ing the elec­tions un­der the one-man-one-vote sys­tem. Pre­vi­ous elec­tions used a del­e­gate sys­tem.More 81,000 mem­bers are el­i­gi­ble to vote in the his­toric elec­tion.