STEPHON NICHOLAS

GML To­ba­go Cor­re­spon­dent

PNM po­lit­i­cal leader Pen­ne­lope Beck­les has wel­comed the elec­tion of Sham­fa Cud­joe-Lewis as head of the par­ty’s To­ba­go Coun­cil, de­scrib­ing it as a key mo­ment as the par­ty con­tin­ues its re­build­ing ef­forts fol­low­ing its de­feat in the THA elec­tions.

In a me­dia re­lease to­day, Beck­les said the for­mer To­ba­go West MP will au­to­mat­i­cal­ly as­sume the role of one of the par­ty’s deputy po­lit­i­cal lead­ers.

Cud­joe-Lewis con­vinc­ing­ly de­feat­ed for­mer mi­nor­i­ty leader Kelvon Mor­ris in the in­ter­nal elec­tions yes­ter­day, se­cur­ing ap­prox­i­mate­ly 63 per cent of the votes af­ter a pre­lim­i­nary count that went in­to the ear­ly hours of the morn­ing.

Beck­les said, “Cud­joe-Lewis has made his­to­ry, be­com­ing on­ly the sec­ond woman to hold this po­si­tion at a time when the move­ment is in a crit­i­cal phase of re­build­ing...She comes ready, com­mit­ted to en­er­gis­ing our move­ment as we re-en­gage the peo­ple of Trinidad and To­ba­go, guid­ed by the strength and per­spec­tive of women’s lead­er­ship.”

Re­flect­ing on her ca­reer, Beck­les said her new deputy brings ex­ten­sive ex­pe­ri­ence that will sup­port the To­ba­go arm of the par­ty.

“She en­tered front­line pol­i­tics as the youngest To­bag­on­ian ap­point­ed to the Sen­ate in 2010, dur­ing my tenure as Leader of Op­po­si­tion Busi­ness in the Sen­ate. She has since served this na­tion with dis­tinc­tion as a MP for ten years and as a Cab­i­net Min­is­ter with re­spon­si­bil­i­ty for Tourism, Youth, Sport, and Com­mu­ni­ty De­vel­op­ment.

“She holds a BSc in In­ter­na­tion­al Re­la­tions and a Mas­ter’s in In­ter­na­tion­al Trade Pol­i­cy, and has com­plet­ed spe­cialised cours­es in Eco­nom­ic De­vel­op­ment, Ex­port Di­ver­si­fi­ca­tion, and In­ter­na­tion­al Food and Agri­cul­ture Trade at the World Bank In­sti­tute. As a for­mer Pres­i­dent of the To­ba­go Youth Coun­cil, she brings a wealth of knowl­edge and ex­pe­ri­ence that will sup­port the re­uni­fi­ca­tion and re­build­ing of the To­ba­go Is­land Coun­cil.”

For­mer To­ba­go Coun­cil po­lit­i­cal leader An­cil Den­nis, who stepped down af­ter the par­ty’s de­feat in the THA elec­tions, al­so ex­tend­ed con­grat­u­la­tions to his suc­ces­sor.

“To­day, I ex­tend sin­cere con­grat­u­la­tions to the new­ly elect­ed Po­lit­i­cal Leader Mrs. Sham­fa Cud­joe-Lewis and Ex­ec­u­tive of the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment To­ba­go, and I wish them suc­cess as they un­der­take their re­spon­si­bil­i­ties.

“Lead­er­ship tran­si­tions are an im­por­tant part of any de­mo­c­ra­t­ic or­ga­ni­za­tion, and I am grate­ful for the op­por­tu­ni­ty I had to serve dur­ing my time.

“As I close this chap­ter, I re­main com­mit­ted to pub­lic ser­vice, per­son­al growth, and con­tribut­ing pos­i­tive­ly wher­ev­er I can.

“I wish the new lead­er­ship wis­dom, strength, and uni­ty in the work ahead.”

Beck­les al­so thanked Mor­ris for his ser­vice and ac­knowl­edged the oth­er can­di­dates.

“I com­mend the mem­bers of the move­ment in To­ba­go and ex­tend best wish­es to the To­ba­go Is­land Coun­cil. May our move­ment con­tin­ue to strength­en, grow, and re­con­nect with our beloved peo­ple.”