?In­cum­bent Ari­ma MP, Deputy House Speak­er Pen­ne­lope Beck­les, is be­ing of­fered a diplo­mat­ic post­ing by Prime Min­is­ter Patrick Man­ning.

Beck­les was screened to con­test the 2010 gen­er­al elec­tion for the seat last week. Gov­ern­ment Sen­a­tor Lau­rel Leza­ma is ex­pect­ed to suc­ceed Beck­les as MP for Ari­ma. A re­lease from Bal­isi­er House, head­quar­ters of the Peo­ple's Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM), said Man­ning and Beck­les had talked about the pro­pos­al.

Mean­while, the PNM has re­fut­ed claims by co-or­di­na­tor of the Net­work of NGOs, Hazel Brown, that the par­ty was "pick­ing" on the Ari­ma MP. The PNM said it want­ed to re­mind Brown that it had dis­played the high­est re­spect for women, not just through the record-break­ing ap­point­ment of sev­en women to the Cab­i­net and a woman as Deputy Speak­er, but al­so through count­less pro­grammes im­ple­ment­ed by the Gov­ern­ment.

The un­signed PNM re­lease said it was "un­for­tu­nate that Brown would make such a claim, which sought to di­min­ish the stand­ing of one of T&T's high­est-rank­ing pro­fes­sion­al women."