Gail Alexan­der

What­ev­er hap­pens in Karen Nunez-Tesheira's court mat­ter on Wednes­day over the Peo­ple's Na­tion­al Move­ment's in­ter­nal elec­tion, the par­ty is des­tined for an­oth­er 100 years of be­ing great, and the UNC needs to get ready to pay costs on its court mat­ter against Gov­ern­ment, says Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment Min­is­ter Faris Al-Rawi.

Al Rawi aimed these mes­sages to PNM lead­er­ship can­di­date Nunez-Tesheira and UNC leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar when he spoke at Tues­day night’s Lead­ers in Ser­vice (LIS) meet­ing in Point Fortin.

This was ahead of Nunez-Tesheira’s case seek­ing to de­lay the par­ty’s in­ter­nal elec­tions. It was al­so af­ter Per­sad-Bisses­sar said on Mon­day the UNC's filed fur­ther court ac­tion to ex­pe­dite its re­cent court mat­ter against the post­pone­ment of Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment elec­tions.

The LIS is seek­ing to win the ex­ec­u­tive elec­tions in this week­end's vot­ing and al­so on De­cem­ber 4, but is await­ing the out­come of Nunez-Tesheira's case. The LIS planned cam­paign meet­ings over Wednes­day in Tacarigua, on Thurs­day in PNM leader Dr Kei­th Row­ley's Diego Mar­tin and a ral­ly on Fri­day in gen­er­al sec­re­tary Fos­ter Cum­mings' La Hor­quet­ta con­stituen­cy.

On Tues­day night, Al-Rawi, the PRO un­op­posed, not­ed, ”(Wednes­day) the court will rule in re­la­tion to the chal­lenges brought in our in­ter­nal process­es. But I'm con­fi­dent that what­ev­er hap­pens, the PNM, from 1954, is des­tined for an­oth­er 100 years of great is the PNM!"

He not­ed, "We're days away from an in­ter­nal elec­tion, 13 months away from a Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment ex­piry of term and open­ing for LG elec­tion – max­i­mum 16 months to the end of that – and 33 months away from a gen­er­al elec­tion.”

On Nunez-Tesheira's claims about the elec­tion, Al-Rawi cit­ed the Da­ta Pro­tec­tion Act which says sen­si­tive per­son­al in­for­ma­tion is pri­vate.

"Mrs Nunez-Tesheira, dear la­dy, thank you for your ser­vice to coun­try in the time you served. I didn't know a cou­ple of years as Fi­nance Min­is­ter en­ti­tled you to... such a record but democ­ra­cy is alive and well," he said.

"But to Mrs Nunez-Tesheira: no­body in this room have any­body tele­phone num­ber! It's why we're in Point Fortin - we come to meet the peo­ple!

"It’s called meet­ing the peo­ple, par­ty groups, it's called can­vass­ing! If you can't be both­ered to go and walk the ground and meet the peo­ple, maybe you might want to re­think your path to­wards po­lit­i­cal leader.”

He added, “That re­quires sweat of the brow, flat shoes – hard work ... all that I’ll say to those try­ing to frus­trate and de­lay, elec­tion tac­tics played out in the court­room – you’re look­ing and feel­ing very un-PNM! Come and do the work! Walk the streets... meet the peo­ple!"

On the UNC, Al-Rawi said, “Look at what UNC has to say – ‘no Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment elec­tion, let’s go to court, once, twice.' Why? Be­cause (Prime Min­is­ter Kei­th) Row­ley said LG elec­tion de­liv­ery is the most im­por­tant thing?

"All I'd tell Mrs Per­sad-Bisses­sar: read Sec­tion 29, sub­sec­tion 2A of the In­ter­pre­ta­tion Act and you go need to know the an­swer is right there.

"Good luck, Kam­la, God bless you. This is a democ­ra­cy, go to court. Get your costs ready be­cause you’ll have to pay the peo­ple of T&T for wast­ing their time."

Gads­by-Dol­ly: "Vote we must - when­ev­er"

Can­di­date for vice chair­man Dr Nyan Gads­by-Dol­ly said peo­ple were won­der­ing what would oc­cur if they can't vote this week­end.

All that'll hap­pen if that comes to be: mem­bers will have to vote a dif­fer­ent time. But vote we must."

She said on De­cem­ber 4, the PNM cel­e­brates its 50th con­ven­tion.

"So don't let your heart be trou­bled when you see the rum­bling go­ing. Un­der­stand that the day to vote will come and vote we must. When­ev­er that time comes, un­der­stand you have to be ready... it’s not an easy time for PNM and par­ty but LIS is com­mit­ted."

Can­di­date for trea­sur­er, Kaz­im Ho­sein, said Row­ley is the PNM's leader and will emerge vic­to­ri­ous.

Point Fortin MP Kennedy Richards said Row­ley might have a few peo­ple go­ing up against him, "but I con­sid­er him un­op­posed."

Op­er­a­tions can­di­date Irene Hinds said what­ev­er the re­sults of Nunez-Tesheira's case, "Dr Row­ley will still be leader, Fos­ter, gen­er­al sec­re­tary and I'll be op­er­a­tions of­fi­cer and next year we'll call a next elec­tion. But (fail­ure) won't hap­pen."