KAY-MARIE FLETCH­ER

Se­nior Re­porter

kay-marie.fletch­er@guardian.co.tt

Plan­ning and De­vel­op­ment Min­is­ter Pen­ne­lope Beck­les-Robin­son is keep­ing her cards close to her chest on whether she will con­test the lead­er­ship of the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) when the post be­comes va­cant.

Con­tact­ed yes­ter­day by Guardian Me­dia on whether she was con­sid­er­ing the post should in­cum­bent leader and Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley step down, Beck­les-Robin­son would on­ly say, “There is no va­can­cy,”

Her com­ment came a day af­ter for­mer gov­ern­ment min­is­ter Jack Warn­er said the on­ly per­son wor­thy of lead­ing the PNM when Row­ley de­parts was Beck­les-Robin­son.

In 2014, she suf­fered a sig­nif­i­cant de­feat af­ter chal­leng­ing Row­ley for lead­er­ship of the PNM.

PNM sources have told Guardian Me­dia that MPs Stu­art Young, who is cur­rent­ly act­ing as PM is Row­ley’s ab­sence, and Fos­ter Cum­mings were the fron­trun­ners for the post of po­lit­i­cal leader.

How­ev­er, when con­tact­ed yes­ter­day, Cum­mings said, “It would be pre­ma­ture to make any com­ment on what you have asked be­cause there is no va­can­cy for po­lit­i­cal leader in the PNM.”

But both Beck­les-Robin­son and Cum­mings said they are in­ter­est­ed in con­test­ing the up­com­ing gen­er­al elec­tion. Beck­les-Robin­son is the Ari­ma MP while Cum­mings is the La Hor­quet­ta/Tal­paro MP.

Elec­tions for the po­lit­i­cal leader po­si­tion are due in 2026. How­ev­er, the is­sue of lead­er­ship came to the fore when Row­ley sug­gest­ed dur­ing the re­cent Bud­get de­bate, that he may be near­ing the end of his po­lit­i­cal ca­reer.

PNM MPs ready to run again

Up to yes­ter­day, 15 con­stituen­cies with­in the PNM were open for nom­i­na­tions.

Guardian Me­dia reached out to all 15 MPs and eight said they were ready to run again.

Cum­mings said, “The con­stituen­cy held a gen­er­al mem­ber­ship meet­ing last evening (Wednes­day) and asked me to con­sid­er ac­cept­ing nom­i­na­tions. I have con­sent­ed to do so.”

Along with Beck­les-Robin­son and Cum­mings, the oth­ers in­clude MPs for To­co/San­gre Grande Roger Mon­roe, Lopinot/Bon Air West Mar­vin Gon­za­les, D’Abadie/O’Meara Lisa Mor­ris-Ju­lian, San Fer­nan­do West Faris Al-Rawi, La Brea Stephen Mc Clashie and Point Fortin Kennedy Richards Jr.

In a tele­phone in­ter­view, Mor­ris-Ju­lian said, “I am gen­uine­ly pas­sion­ate about serv­ing my con­stituen­cy and it is with this com­mit­ment that I seek nom­i­na­tion for a sec­ond term as Mem­ber of Par­lia­ment. I re­main ded­i­cat­ed to ser­vice, and I be­lieve there is sig­nif­i­cant work ahead in ad­vanc­ing the de­vel­op­ment of D’Abadie/O’Meara.”

Al-Rawi said, “Most def­i­nite­ly, I am in the front of the line to put in my nom­i­na­tion. I have a deep love and af­fec­tion for the peo­ple of San Fer­nan­do West. I have an in­ten­tion to stand on my record of ser­vice and vi­sion for the fu­ture of San Fer­nan­do West.”

Al-Rawi al­so dis­missed ru­mours of an al­leged plot with­in the PNM to re­move Bri­an Man­ning from his San Fer­nan­do East seat.

Po­lit­i­cal an­a­lyst Dr Shane Mo­hammed re­cent­ly said his sources with­in the PNM had re­vealed there’s a grow­ing an­ti-Man­ning cam­paign.

How­ev­er, Al-Rawi said, “No, I don’t know of any plot or cir­cum­stance con­cern­ing Bri­an. We are in an elec­tion sea­son and a lot of the so-called talk is com­ing from the UNC. I ex­pect all sorts of wild con­spir­a­cies and al­le­ga­tions and ‘bac­cha­nal’ or ‘kuchur’. It’s just part of the course.”

Al Rawi: Row­ley stronger than ever

Mean­while, the San Fer­nan­do West MP boast­ed about the strength of Prime Min­is­ter Row­ley, who cel­e­brat­ed his 75th birth­day yes­ter­day. He said Row­ley was far from ready to re­tire.

Dur­ing his con­tri­bu­tion to the 2025 Bud­get de­bate in the Low­er House, the Prime Min­is­ter de­liv­ered a “swan song” pre­sen­ta­tion, spark­ing spec­u­la­tion he may to ready to leave pol­i­tics.

But Al-Rawi said Row­ley, who is now the coun­try’s old­est prime min­is­ter, was stronger than ever.

“It is clear to me that we all line up be­hind our leader. I cer­tain­ly do. He is the man tak­ing us in­to a gen­er­al elec­tion. He is the man we sup­port, and I don’t think there is even an is­sue of lead­er­ship,” he said.

“I think it’s per­fect­ly fine for peo­ple to be spec­u­lat­ing based on words and ut­ter­ances, etc, but the lead­er­ship of the PNM is not open for con­test. He is mer­cu­ri­al­ly in­tel­li­gent, and his en­er­gy lev­els are sec­ond to none. In the 15 years I have worked with him, I find him sharp­er and stronger and faster than he’s ever been.”