Rhon­da Krys­tal Ram­bal­ly

The Peo­ple's Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) has ex­pelled one of its mem­bers and sus­pend­ed three oth­ers from the par­ty.

Par­ty chair­man Franklin Khan told the me­dia yes­ter­day that Rush­ton Paray, the MP for Ma­yaro who con­test­ed and won the seat un­der a Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress tick­et, has been im­me­di­ate­ly ex­pelled.

Dis­ci­pli­nary pro­ceed­ings have been ini­ti­at­ed against ra­dio talk show host Ri­car­do Welch, aka "Glad­i­a­tor," po­lit­i­cal ac­tivist Chris­tine "Twig­gy" Livia, and PN­Mite Bar­ry Gar­cia. Khan said they had "trans­gressed be­yond rea­son in their be­hav­iour dur­ing the elec­tion cam­paign."

They have been sus­pend­ed and will be no­ti­fied to­mor­row. Khan said they would be for­ward­ed to the "com­mit­tee on in­ves­ti­ga­tions for dis­ci­pline."

These de­ci­sions were made be­fore the Gen­er­al Coun­cil, where close to 180 mem­bers were in at­ten­dance.

Khan made this rev­e­la­tion yes­ter­day at a me­dia brief­ing af­ter the PNM's Eighth Gen­er­al Coun­cil meet­ing at Bal­isi­er House in Port-of-Spain.

He said, "As you are aware, the par­ty's con­sti­tu­tion is clear that if you are a card-hold­ing mem­ber of the PNM and you con­test an elec­tion against the par­ty, that leads to au­to­mat­ic ex­pul­sion.

"So the au­to­mat­ic ex­pul­sion was ini­ti­at­ed on Rush­ton Paray, who is now the Mem­ber of Par­lia­ment for Ma­yaro.

"He is a card­hold­ing mem­ber of the PNM who was ad­mit­ted on Oc­to­ber 8, 2008.

"As we speak, he has been of­fi­cial­ly ex­pelled from the Peo­ple's Na­tion­al Move­ment."

Welch had been a mem­ber since 1990; Livia had been a mem­ber since Jan­u­ary 1, 1968; and Gar­cia joined the PNM on April 13, 1992.

Khan said Livia had thrown away her long lega­cy in the par­ty. She was seen at sev­er­al meet­ings host­ed by the Peo­ple's Part­ner­ship in the run-up to the elec­tion, and has al­so been a sup­port­er of for­mer prime min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar.

Last year, at a con­stituen­cy din­ner for San Fer­nan­do East, Gar­cia bashed Dr Kei­th Row­ley's prais­es for for­mer leader Patrick Man­ning.

Gar­cia said Row­ley's prais­es were "de­ceit­ful and hyp­o­crit­i­cal."

Ear­li­er this year, Welch, on his Face­book page, said he in­tend­ed "to in­struct my at­tor­neys to pre­pare and is­sue le­gal ac­tion" against Row­ley and the PNM.

Welch had then said he would not be si­lenced, in­tim­i­dat­ed or dis­tract­ed by Dr Kei­th Row­ley for speak­ing out on mat­ters.

The par­ty con­sti­tu­tion states

The par­ty's con­sti­tu­tion states, "Any mem­ber of the move­ment whose con­duct is in the ques­tion of the Gen­er­al Coun­cil, in­im­i­cal to the in­ter­est of the move­ment, shall be li­able to such dis­ci­pli­nary ac­tion as a Gen­er­al Coun­cil may de­ter­mine."

Khan said, "At the end of the day, we are a se­ri­ous par­ty. A par­ty that is gov­erned by rules and reg­u­la­tions and our longevi­ty of 60 years as a pre­mi­um, po­lit­i­cal in­sti­tu­tion is large­ly based on our ro­bust in­ter­nal process­es and pro­ce­dures.

"We have sur­vived this length of time be­cause of the con­sti­tu­tion of the Peo­ple's Na­tion­al Move­ment, which we ad­here to re­li­gious­ly."

Khan said based on that premise, the par­ty saw it fit to ini­ti­ate dis­ci­pli­nary ac­tion against the trio.

He quot­ed from Ar­ti­cle 22:6 of the par­ty's con­sti­tu­tion which states, "Any mem­ber of the move­ment who is charged with any breach of dis­ci­pline may, in the dis­cre­tion of the Gen­er­al Coun­cil, be sus­pend­ed dur­ing the in­ves­ti­ga­tion."

Mean­while, the at­mos­phere at Bal­isi­er House was a cel­e­bra­to­ry one, with new min­is­ters and par­ty of­fi­cials so­cial­is­ing over eats and drinks.

Among those were Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley, At­tor­ney Gen­er­al Faris Al-Rawi, Fi­nance Min­is­ter Colm Im­bert, Trade and In­dus­try Min­is­ter Paula Gopee-Scoon and Ed­u­ca­tion Min­is­ter An­tho­ny Gar­cia. See Page A11