JavaScript is disabled in your web browser or browser is too old to support JavaScript. Today almost all web pages contain JavaScript, a scripting programming language that runs on visitor's web browser. It makes web pages functional for specific purposes and if disabled for some reason, the content or the functionality of the web page can be limited or unavailable.

Friday, June 20, 2025

PNM to decide on June internal election date today

by

36 days ago
20250516

The Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment’s (PNM) Gen­er­al Coun­cil meets in spe­cial ses­sion to­day to dis­cuss a pro­posed date for its in­ter­nal elec­tion. Par­ty sources say the date of June 25 is un­der heavy con­sid­er­a­tion.

The lead­er­ship of five peo­ple an­nounced at the Gen­er­al Coun­cil meet­ing af­ter they met on Mon­day. They al­so agreed that all 16 PNM ex­ec­u­tive posts, in­clud­ing po­lit­i­cal leader, will be con­test­ed in the in­ter­nal elec­tion us­ing the one-man-one vote sys­tem.

An elec­tion su­per­vi­so­ry com­mit­tee will be es­tab­lished by the Gen­er­al Coun­cil to­day to man­age the con­duct of the elec­tion, in­clud­ing re­view and is­suance of the fi­nal elec­toral list and a code of ethics for the elec­tion.

The PNM’s last ex­ec­u­tive elec­tion in 2022 was held over three days, No­vem­ber 26, 27 and De­cem­ber 4. Then-PNM leader Dr Kei­th Row­ley won re-elec­tion against con­tenders Karen Nunez-Tesheira, Ju­nior Bar­rack and Ronald Boynes. Nine­ty-two per cent of vot­ers showed con­fi­dence in Row­ley as their leader. He ob­tained 8,424 votes while the near­est chal­lenger, Nunez-Tesheira, re­ceived 345 votes, while Boynes and Bar­rack ob­tained 243 votes and 99 re­spec­tive­ly. There was a low vot­er turnout, with 9,111 out of 105,894 el­i­gi­ble par­ty mem­bers vot­ing.

Sev­er­al in­cum­bent of­fi­cers—and for­mer ones—have ex­pressed in­ter­est in con­test­ing the up­com­ing in­ter­nal elec­tion.

On the ex­pect­ed par­ty elec­tion, for­mer PNM gen­er­al sec­re­tary Ash­ton Ford, who said no­body would op­pose Op­po­si­tion Leader Pen­ne­lope Beck­les for the par­ty’s lead­er­ship post, main­tained the view that the pe­ri­od to have the elec­tion in June was too short. In an in­ter­view yes­ter­day, he said the team han­dling the or­gan­i­sa­tion will “have their work cut out for them to do it in six weeks be­cause it’s a lot of work to or­gan­ise such an elec­tion in­ter­nal­ly.”

Ford al­so cit­ed is­sues hang­ing over the PNM’s head, in­clud­ing his view that the lead­er­ship could not de­ny there was no con­sul­ta­tion with the PNM’s 13 elect­ed MPs in a sit-down meet­ing to choose the Op­po­si­tion Leader, “And that will nev­er go away—they’ve nev­er ex­plained why they used that clan­des­tine ap­proach on this is­sue.”

Mean­while, the names of three de­feat­ed PNM can­di­dates—Fos­ter Cum­mings, Faris Al-Rawi and Sham­fa Cud­joe-Lewis—have been heard in con­nec­tion with PNM’s six Sen­ate posts, which were be­ing fi­nalised this week ahead of next Fri­day’s open­ing of the new Par­lia­ment term. Names for var­i­ous bench­es were to have been com­plet­ed by yes­ter­day.

PNM in­sid­ers said a “lot of lob­by­ing is go­ing on” for Sen­ate posts.

The names of for­mer Min­is­ters Has­sel Bac­chus of To­ba­go, Dr Amery Browne and par­ty re­searcher Vi­ash Nand­lal are al­so be­ing called. Up to re­cent­ly, there were al­so un­con­firmed re­ports that in­ter­ven­tion was be­ing made for for­mer UNC mem­bers Lar­ry Lal­la, SC, and for­mer Tabaquite MP Ani­ta Haynes-Al­leyne to be part of the Sen­ate team.

Ford al­so re­peat­ed his opin­ion that based on prin­ci­ple, de­feat­ed can­di­dates should not be ap­point­ed Sen­a­tors.


Related articles

Sponsored

Weather

PORT OF SPAIN WEATHER

Sponsored

Today's
Guardian

Publications

Success Laventille Secondary School principal Stacey Lezama alongside the volunteer representatives from Unicomer (Trinidad) Limited and United Way, who recently participated in a programme to improve the school's physical and learning environment.

Success Laventille Secondary School principal Stacey Lezama alongside the volunteer representatives from Unicomer (Trinidad) Limited and United Way, who recently participated in a programme to improve the school's physical and learning environment.

Photo courtesy:Cindy James

Success Laventille Secondary School principal Stacey Lezama alongside the volunteer representatives from Unicomer (Trinidad) Limited and United Way, who recently participated in a programme to improve the school's physical and learning environment.

Success Laventille Secondary School principal Stacey Lezama alongside the volunteer representatives from Unicomer (Trinidad) Limited and United Way, who recently participated in a programme to improve the school's physical and learning environment.

Photo courtesy:Cindy James

Unicomer invests in Laventille through Day of Caring

Yesterday
Artist Keith Mervyn Ward, left, shares a moment with Marika and Kathleen Richards and Sita and Lennox Sealy.

Artist Keith Mervyn Ward, left, shares a moment with Marika and Kathleen Richards and Sita and Lennox Sealy.

Photo courtesy Patricia Martin-Ward

Artist Keith Mervyn Ward, left, shares a moment with Marika and Kathleen Richards and Sita and Lennox Sealy.

Artist Keith Mervyn Ward, left, shares a moment with Marika and Kathleen Richards and Sita and Lennox Sealy.

Photo courtesy Patricia Martin-Ward

‘Tints Tones and Textures’ at Lloyd Best Institute

Yesterday
The Emancipation monument, designed and created by jeweler and designer Gillian Bishop, is located in front of the Treasury Building on Independence Square.

The Emancipation monument, designed and created by jeweler and designer Gillian Bishop, is located in front of the Treasury Building on Independence Square.

MARIELA BRUZUAL

The Emancipation monument, designed and created by jeweler and designer Gillian Bishop, is located in front of the Treasury Building on Independence Square.

The Emancipation monument, designed and created by jeweler and designer Gillian Bishop, is located in front of the Treasury Building on Independence Square.

MARIELA BRUZUAL

Public art in Port-of-Spain

Yesterday
Sundar and friends in a Barrackpore bar in one of the scenes in the play.

Sundar and friends in a Barrackpore bar in one of the scenes in the play.

Rishi Ragoonath

Sundar and friends in a Barrackpore bar in one of the scenes in the play.

Sundar and friends in a Barrackpore bar in one of the scenes in the play.

Rishi Ragoonath

Sundar — the story of a chutney legend on the Naparima stage

2 days ago