Gail Alexan­der

Se­nior Po­lit­i­cal Re­porter

At­tor­ney Farai Hove Ma­sai­sai will again be seek­ing the post of Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) chair­man in the par­ty’s in­ter­nal elec­tion and will be lead­ing the Peo­ple’s Cham­pi­on (PC) slate.

His slate is the first to emerge for the in­ter­nal poll.

The in­ter­nal elec­tion for 16 ex­ec­u­tive posts is be­ing held fol­low­ing the par­ty’s April 28 Gen­er­al Elec­tion de­feat to the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC). Nom­i­na­tion Day is Mon­day and vot­ing is on June 22, fol­lowed by the June 29 elec­tion con­ven­tion.

Op­po­si­tion Leader Pen­ne­lope Beck­les will seek the post of po­lit­i­cal leader. For­mer PNM leader Dr Kei­th Row­ley re­signed soon af­ter the Gen­er­al Elec­tion de­feat, as did chair­man Stu­art Young and deputy leader Ro­han Sinanan.

Port-of-Spain May­or Chin­ua Al­leyne and four in­cum­bent of­fi­cers have so far con­firmed they will con­test posts. Al­leyne un­suc­cess­ful­ly con­test­ed the post of gen­er­al sec­re­tary in 2018 against Fos­ter Cum­mings.

Cum­mings hasn’t replied to ques­tions about whether he will seek the post again but par­ty sources said he will. He al­so hasn’t said if he will lead a slate of can­di­dates seek­ing to re­tain posts they cur­rent­ly hold.

Ma­sai­sai yes­ter­day con­firmed he will be con­test­ing at the helm of the Peo­ple’s Cham­pi­on slate but did not say who else would be on the slate.

“I un­der­stand there is much en­thu­si­asm. All will be re­vealed at our up­com­ing cam­paign launch,” he said

In the PNM’s 2022 in­ter­nal elec­tion, Ma­sai­sai, lead­ing a PC slate, con­test­ed the chair­man­ship against Young and Ken­neth Butch­er.

Young was part of the Lead­ers in Ser­vice slate which won. Butch­er was part of the team head­ed by ex-min­is­ter Karen Nunez-Tesheira, who un­suc­cess­ful­ly con­test­ed the lead­er­ship against Row­ley.

Oth­er Peo­ple’s Cham­pi­on mem­bers who un­suc­cess­ful­ly con­test­ed in 2022 were for­mer PNM min­is­ter Ali­cia Hospedales, who sought the post of wel­fare of­fi­cer and Janelle John-Bates, who vied for the post of as­sis­tant gen­er­al sec­re­tary.

John-Bates, who was ap­point­ed an op­po­si­tion sen­a­tor last week, said she will not be on any slate for this elec­tion.

The PC team de­scribed them­selves as com­mit­ted pro­fes­sion­als with­in the PNM led by Ma­sai­sai.

“We first con­test­ed the par­ty’s in­ter­nal elec­tions in 2022 with a clear pur­pose: to re­vi­talise a cul­ture of ser­vice, strength­en mem­ber en­gage­ment, and sup­port mean­ing­ful re­form from with­in. We’re guid­ed by the prin­ci­ples of ser­vant lead­er­ship, be­liev­ing that true lead­er­ship is ground­ed in hu­mil­i­ty, ac­count­abil­i­ty, and con­sis­tent ac­tion,” the group said.

“We ad­vo­cate for re­spect­ful di­a­logue, ev­i­dence-in­formed de­ci­sion-mak­ing, and a po­lit­i­cal cul­ture that lis­tens, learns, and leads by ex­am­ple and with in­tegri­ty.

“Our team be­lieves the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment is at its best when it em­braces di­ver­si­ty of thought, em­pow­ers new lead­er­ship, and stays re­spon­sive to the chang­ing needs of our mem­ber­ship and na­tion. We’re com­mit­ted to help­ing build a par­ty that is in­sti­tu­tion­al­ly strong, peo­ple-cen­tred, and equipped to meet the chal­lenges of a new era.”

He added, “Ground­ed in ser­vice and dri­ven by pur­pose, the Peo­ple’s Cham­pi­ons re­main ready to work along­side all who share a vi­sion for a more in­clu­sive, dy­nam­ic, and fu­ture-fo­cused PNM—one that ho­n­ours its proud his­to­ry while prepar­ing bold­ly for what lies ahead.”

Ma­sai­sai, who is of Zim­bab­wean and Trinida­di­an lin­eage, is a for­mer Trin­i­ty Ju­nior School and Trin­i­ty Col­lege, Mo­ka stu­dent. He stud­ied law in Eng­land and is a se­nior part­ner at Hove & As­so­ciates.

In 2022, he was the reg­is­trar of Friend­ly and Build­ing So­ci­eties and pres­i­dent of the He­li­co­nia Foun­da­tion for Young Pro­fes­sion­als.

Cur­rent PNM chair­man Dr Nyan Gads­by-Dol­ly hasn’t said whether she will seek the chair­man­ship and there’s been no re­ply from Young on whether he will con­test any post.

Laven­tille West MP Ka­reem Mar­celle, an at­tor­ney, said par­tic­i­pa­tion in the in­ter­nal elec­tion “is un­der con­sid­er­a­tion.”

Tabaquite con­stituen­cy chair­man Cur­tis Shade is seek­ing the post of field of­fi­cer, the po­si­tion he was go­ing to con­test in 2022 but with­drew. Cur­rent field of­fi­cer Ter­rence Beepath hasn’t said whether he will seek re-elec­tion.

Among the par­ty of­fi­cials con­test­ing again are op­er­a­tions of­fi­cer Irene Hinds, elec­tions of­fi­cer In­dar Paras­ram, as­sis­tant gen­er­al sec­re­tary Pa­tri­cia Alex­is and wel­fare of­fi­cer Max­ine Richards.

When asked if she would con­test the elec­tion, la­dy vice chair­man Camille Robin­son-Reg­is said: “Nom­i­na­tion Day is June 2.”

Al­so ex­pect­ed to con­test are ed­u­ca­tion of­fi­cer Lau­rel Leza­ma and PRO Faris Al-Rawi, al­though they have not con­firmed this yet. Those not con­test­ing are so­cial me­dia of­fi­cer Kwasi Robin­son, trea­sur­er Kaz­im Ho­sein, youth of­fi­cer Je­niece Scott and labour re­la­tions of­fi­cer Jen­nifer Bap­tiste-Primus.