AN­GE­LO JE­DIDI­AH

an­ge­lo.je­didi­ah@guardian.co.tt

As po­lit­i­cal par­ties gear up for this year’s gen­er­al elec­tion, po­lit­i­cal an­a­lyst Dr Shane Mo­hammed be­lieves the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) is bet­ter po­si­tioned to cross the fin­ish line but notes lin­ger­ing con­cerns about prime min­is­ter-des­ig­nate Stu­art Young’s favoura­bil­i­ty.

This com­ment fol­lows last Sat­ur­day’s an­tic­i­pat­ed PNM Gen­er­al Coun­cil meet­ing, where en­er­gy min­is­ter Stu­art Young was of­fi­cial­ly an­nounced to suc­ceed Dr Kei­th Row­ley as prime min­is­ter.

Speak­ing on CNC3’s The Morn­ing Brew pro­gramme on Tues­day, Dr Mo­hammed not­ed that de­spite last week's in­ter­nal lead­er­ship bat­tle, the par­ty had made sig­nif­i­cant strides over the past few weeks that could aid them in se­cur­ing vic­to­ry in the coun­try’s next gen­er­al elec­tion

Dr Mo­hammed high­light­ed For­eign and CARI­COM Af­fairs Min­is­ter Dr Amery Browne’s in­ten­tion to rep­re­sent the Diego Mar­tin West seat as an­oth­er key piece of the puz­zle falling in­to place.

“There’s on­ly to see if Min­is­ter Colm Im­bert re­turns to Diego Mar­tin North East, and then that’s it. We look now to com­plete the team. Mrs Pene­lope Beck­les-Robin­son is go­ing to do what she has to do with re­gard to tak­ing the PNM across the vic­to­ry line. All the rum­blings are over,” Dr Mo­hammed said.

He added that while Young would like­ly feel com­fort­able in his new role as prime min­is­ter, giv­en his par­lia­men­tary ca­reer over the past decade, more work needs to be done to ad­dress doubts held by both PNM mem­bers and the wider pub­lic.

Dr Mo­hammed al­so em­pha­sised that the man­ner in which Young and oth­er min­is­ters in­ter­act with the me­dia will play a crit­i­cal role, prais­ing gov­ern­ment min­is­ters Faris Al-Rawi and Beck­les-Robin­son for their de­meanour.

“He should have start­ed that trans­for­ma­tion. That im­age con­sul­tan­cy—the way he ap­proach­es the me­dia, how he ad­dress­es the me­dia,” Dr Mo­hammed said.

“How would they re­ceive com­ments that may not nec­es­sar­i­ly be pleas­ant? Be­cause one has to be able to, as you right­ful­ly say, nav­i­gate the dis­cus­sion, tem­per their re­spons­es, and be diplo­mat­ic. Be re­lat­able, and some­one who peo­ple can un­der­stand and who peo­ple don’t see as sim­ply ar­ro­gant, right?” he added.

For­mer PNM min­is­ter Karen Nunez-Tesheira ex­pressed sim­i­lar con­cerns, telling Guardian Me­dia she doubts Young will be­come po­lit­i­cal leader be­fore the up­com­ing gen­er­al elec­tions due to his low favoura­bil­i­ty among the pub­lic and his close sim­i­lar­i­ties to Dr Row­ley.

“The par­ty should be the one to make de­ci­sions on the par­ty’s lead­er­ship. Once that de­ci­sion is made, I doubt very much that Min­is­ter Young will be se­lect­ed. More like­ly Pen­ny Beck­les. More like­ly Fos­ter Cum­mings. But cer­tain­ly not him,” said Nunez-Tesheira.

“If he is se­lect­ed, then it’s very un­like­ly that he could en­ter in­to par­lia­ment as a leader, and that is what the Prime Min­is­ter is try­ing to avoid."