Stephon Nicholas

To­ba­go Cor­re­spon­dent

The race for lead­er­ship of the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) To­ba­go Coun­cil heads in­to its fi­nal week, with for­mer mi­nor­i­ty leader Kelvon Mor­ris tak­ing on ex-To­ba­go West MP Sham­fa Cud­joe for the po­lit­i­cal reins.

How­ev­er, both can­di­dates are stress­ing on the im­por­tance of not let­ting the April 26 polls di­vide the par­ty dur­ing its most dif­fi­cult time.

The PNM was trounced 15-0 at the Jan­u­ary 12 To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly (THA) elec­tions and, for the first time ever, has no rep­re­sen­ta­tive in the As­sem­bly Leg­is­la­ture.

In an in­ter­view with Guardian Me­dia on Sat­ur­day, Mor­ris said the par­ty has learned its lessons from the bit­ter 2020 bat­tle be­tween Kelvin Charles and Tra­cy David­son-Ce­les­tine for con­trol of the To­ba­go Coun­cil.

“It was the first time in the To­ba­go Coun­cil that we would have elect­ed our ex­ec­u­tive lead­er­ship with the one-man, one-vote sys­tem. It was a new ex­pe­ri­ence for the en­tire mem­ber­ship.

“We have learned from that ex­pe­ri­ence, and the tone of the com­pe­ti­tion and con­ver­sa­tion is a lit­tle less ag­gres­sive and con­fronta­tion­al than it was back then.”

Cud­joe echoed sim­i­lar sen­ti­ments and has ex­tend­ed an open in­vi­ta­tion to any can­di­date, even those on Mor­ris’ Team Uni­ty slate, to at­tend her cot­tage meet­ings.

The for­mer sports min­is­ter re­cent­ly held meet­ings in John Di­al, Ma­son Hall and Rox­bor­ough as she cov­ered To­ba­go East.

She said, “Whether you’re on a slate, whether you’re in­de­pen­dent, you can move with me, and I give you a plat­form to speak. A cou­ple can­di­dates on Kelvon side came to my meet­ings, and I gave them the plat­form to speak to my au­di­ence. We are one PNM, my au­di­ence is his au­di­ence, his au­di­ence is my au­di­ence.

“Ul­ti­mate­ly, we are one PNM, and mem­ber­ship should hear from all the can­di­dates on how they in­tend to re­build this par­ty.”

Mor­ris re­vealed he even at­tend­ed one of Cud­joe’s meet­ings and con­grat­u­lat­ed her on the ges­ture.

He said there is a lev­el of mu­tu­al re­spect which To­ba­go has recog­nised and ap­pre­ci­at­ed.

The for­mer Dar­rel Spring/Whim elec­toral rep­re­sen­ta­tive said his pri­or­i­ty is al­so to unite the par­ty in a mean­ing­ful way.

“My can­di­da­cy has demon­strat­ed to the mem­ber­ship that this is very much pos­si­ble.”

He said the en­dorse­ments by ex-chief sec­re­tary Charles and David­son-Ce­les­tine shows his abil­i­ty to bring peo­ple to­geth­er.

“It is amaz­ing to see per­sons who would have had heat­ed com­pe­ti­tion be­fore, they are now in the same room strate­gis­ing. This is the kind of uni­fi­ca­tion the mem­ber­ship has been ask­ing for.”

He said his growth as a politi­cian is a tes­ta­ment to his will­ing­ness to learn from par­ty stal­warts such as Charles, Orville Lon­don, Clau­dia Broome-Duke, Stan­ford Cal­len­der and Dr Kei­th Row­ley.

Mor­ris has for­mu­lat­ed a Roadmap to Vic­to­ry 2030 plan out­lin­ing a plan to mod­ernise the par­ty, grow its mem­ber­ship, sta­bilise its fi­nances and res­onate with the pub­lic.

He said a fund will be de­vel­oped to cov­er elec­tion ex­pens­es so the par­ty does not fall in­to debt as oc­curred in the last THA elec­tions.

He said talks are un­der­way to bring val­ue to the PNM par­ty card, where mem­bers can get dis­counts at spe­cif­ic busi­ness­es.

If elect­ed, Mor­ris said he in­tends to ad­vo­cate for a deputy po­lit­i­cal leader post where “some­one like Sham­fa” can serve the par­ty if they so wish.

Cud­joe said she con­tin­ues to run a grass­roots cam­paign with an em­pha­sis on in­ter­act­ing with the man on the ground.

“It’s about knock­ing on doors; we just have to fo­cus on touch­ing base with our mem­bers and hear­ing what they have to say.

“That is what I know, that is what I am ac­cus­tomed to. That is what works for me, mak­ing the in­ti­mate con­nec­tions with the peo­ple who mat­ter most, the peo­ple on the ground.”

Cud­joe, who ar­rived to file her nom­i­na­tion pa­pers by her­self on April 11, said her cam­paign is pick­ing up steam.

For­mer ed­u­ca­tion sec­re­tary Marl­syn Melville-Jack re­cent­ly en­dorsed her for po­lit­i­cal leader in a video post­ed to so­cial me­dia.

Cud­joe said she has been re­ceiv­ing sup­port, even though not all may be vis­i­ble.

“Just be­cause you don’t see them out front doesn’t mean I don’t have sup­port,” she said.

A key el­e­ment of her cam­paign, she said, is walk­a­bouts and en­gag­ing with the pub­lic via cot­tage meet­ings.

“I want to give peo­ple the free­dom to speak and to know they are be­ing heard. I want to take every­body’s ques­tions and an­swer it. I be­lieve in cot­tage-meet­ing style where we all meet at the same lev­el and ex­change ideas.”

Cud­joe said she will not be host­ing any meet­ings this week­end to avoid clash­es with Mor­ris.

“It’s about main­tain­ing peace and uni­ty and be­ing the peace and uni­ty. There is no war here. There is no we and them.

“The de­ci­sion rests with the mem­bers, and they de­serve to care­ful­ly con­sid­er both ar­gu­ments and vote for who they want.”

Polls will be open from 8 am to 6 pm at Spey­side Pri­ma­ry School, Rox­bor­ough Mul­ti­pur­pose Fa­cil­i­ty, John Di­al Mul­ti­pur­pose Fa­cil­i­ty, Ma­son Hall Pri­ma­ry School, Par­latu­vi­er Mul­ti­pur­pose Fa­cil­i­ty, Bon Ac­cord Pri­ma­ry School, Low­land Mul­ti­pur­pose Fa­cil­i­ty, Ply­mouth An­gli­can Pri­ma­ry School, and Bish­op’s High School.

PNM elec­tion can­di­dates

Po­lit­i­cal leader Sham­fa Cud­joe, Kelvon Mor­ris (Team Uni­ty)

Chair­man Charles Smith (Team Uni­ty), Ryan Joe­field, Nicole Hen­ry

Vice Chair­man Petal Benoit (Team Uni­ty), Kar­maria Lon­don

La­dy Vice Chair­man Melanie Roberts Radg­man (Team Uni­ty), Melis­sa Win­ches­ter

Gen­er­al Sec­re­tary Justin John (Team Uni­ty), Akissi Lon­don

As­sis­tant Gen­er­al Sec­re­tary Rhon­da Phillips (Team Uni­ty), Shim­i­ca Top­pin

Trea­sur­er Clarence Ja­cob (Team Uni­ty), Quin­cy Trim

Ed­u­ca­tion Of­fi­cer Kev­ern Phillips (Team Uni­ty), Iyana Phillips

PRO Joseph Fred­er­ick (Team Uni­ty), Akeel Guy, Lor­raine Forbes

So­cial Me­dia Of­fi­cer Tiffany An­der­son (Team Uni­ty), Zak Williams

Elec­tions Of­fi­cer Mar­ilon David (Team Uni­ty), Afi­ah James

Re­search Of­fi­cer Vaughn Charles (Team Uni­ty), Liam Wilkin­son

Wel­fare Of­fi­cer Lois Small (Team Uni­ty), Joan Williams Tay­lor

Field Of­fi­cer Ryan Roberts (Team Uni­ty), Camisha Bac­chus

Op­er­a­tions Of­fi­cer An­cil Thorne, Learie McKen­zie

Labour Re­la­tions Of­fi­cer Desmond Woods (Team Uni­ty), Rus­selle Wil­son

Youth Of­fi­cer Car­lesia Mcewen (Team Uni­ty), L’Shau­na No­ray