Ke­jan Haynes 

The PNM's up­com­ing Spe­cial Con­ven­tion has ig­nit­ed a sharp pub­lic ex­change be­tween for­mer Gen­er­al Sec­re­tary Ash­ton Ford and cur­rent Par­ty Chair­man Dr Nyan Gads­by-Dol­ly, over the role par­ty groups in the in­ter­nal elec­tion process.

In a let­ter to the ed­i­tor, Ford al­leged, “for the first time in the his­to­ry of the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM), the par­ty will host a Con­ven­tion with­out the par­tic­i­pa­tion of its Par­ty Groups.” Cit­ing the par­ty’s con­sti­tu­tion, he high­light­ed Clause 5 of Ar­ti­cle 9, which states: “Each Par­ty Group shall elect, when­ev­er a Spe­cial Con­ven­tion is sum­moned, a del­e­gate to rep­re­sent it at such spe­cial con­ven­tion.” 

He found it “baf­fling” that the Gen­er­al Coun­cil would pro­ceed with­out first in­struct­ing par­ty groups to elect their of­fi­cers.

Gads­by-Dol­ly re­spond­ed in an of­fi­cial me­dia re­lease, dis­miss­ing Ford’s claim as “not on­ly in­cor­rect, but ign­or[ing] the es­tab­lished se­quence of de­mo­c­ra­t­ic process­es.” 

“The al­le­ga­tion that par­ty groups are be­ing left out of the in­ter­nal elec­tion process is clear­ly with­out mer­it," she said.

She ex­plained that all 41 con­stituen­cies held their par­ty group elec­tions, An­nu­al Gen­er­al Meet­ings, and Con­fer­ences in 2024. Al­though the No­vem­ber 2024 Con­ven­tion was can­celled, she said a Spe­cial Con­ven­tion was ap­proved by the Gen­er­al Coun­cil for June 29, 2025, with in­ter­nal elec­tions oc­cur­ring a week ear­li­er on June 22 via a one man, one vote sys­tem.

Ford has re­peat­ed­ly ques­tioned the tim­ing of the de­ci­sion, ar­gu­ing that ex­tend­ing the process by just three months would have al­lowed full par­ty group par­tic­i­pa­tion.

“The re­fusal to ex­tend the time­line… sug­gests that the Con­ven­tion is be­ing rushed to en­gi­neer a pre­de­ter­mined out­come,” he warned, com­par­ing the cur­rent sit­u­a­tion to what he called “the se­lec­tion of the Op­po­si­tion Leader,” which he claimed was done by on­ly sev­en of the thir­teen elect­ed MPs.

Gads­by-Dol­ly in­sist­ed: “Every one of [the par­ty group] mem­bers has the right to vote in the PNM's in­ter­nal elec­tions.” She fur­ther ar­gued that the ground­work for par­tic­i­pa­tion had al­ready been com­plet­ed in 2024, and that the up­com­ing Con­ven­tion “falls with­in the 2024/25 pe­ri­od.”

But Ford raised deep­er con­cerns about the in­tegri­ty of in­ter­nal process­es, ref­er­enc­ing the “con­tro­ver­sial elec­tion of the Par­ty Chair­man and Vice Chair­man—sep­a­rat­ed by on­ly two votes amid claims that two in­el­i­gi­ble mem­bers vot­ed.” He point­ed to what he de­scribed as a pat­tern of “top-down ma­noeu­vres” that have left many par­ty mem­bers feel­ing alien­at­ed.

“Re­build­ing must be in­clu­sive,” Ford urged. “Par­ty mem­bers should not be side­lined or se­lec­tive­ly en­gaged.”

Gads­by-Dol­ly, mean­while, has said, “The PNM will con­tin­ue to op­er­ate with the high­est de­mo­c­ra­t­ic prin­ci­ples as it fo­cus­es on the tasks at hand.”