Gail Alexan­der

Se­nior Po­lit­i­cal Re­porter

The Peo­ple’s Cham­pi­ons, one of the slates con­test­ing the Peo­ple Na­tion­al Move­ment’s (PNM) in­ter­nal elec­tion, will launch their cam­paign this evening.

Some can­di­dates, in­clud­ing Port-of-Spain May­or Chin­ua Al­leyne, are con­test­ing the elec­tion in­de­pen­dent­ly, while oth­ers are ex­pect­ed to launch their cam­paigns at an Ari­ma event on Sat­ur­day, in a bid to work along­side PNM leader-elect Pen­ne­lope Beck­les.

The June 22 in­ter­nal elec­tion is part of the par­ty’s re­struc­tur­ing process fol­low­ing its April 28 Gen­er­al Elec­tion de­feat to the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress.

At Mon­day’s nom­i­na­tion day ex­er­cise, Beck­les was un­op­posed for the po­lit­i­cal leader post. Some 50 can­di­dates are vy­ing for the re­main­ing 15 ex­ec­u­tive posts. The most con­test­ed post is labour re­la­tions of­fi­cer, with six can­di­dates.

The Peo­ple’s Cham­pi­ons slate, which is be­ing launched at Queen’s Hall from 6 pm, is con­test­ing six po­si­tions. The slate is led by at­tor­ney Farai Hove Ma­sai­sai, who is con­test­ing the post of chair­man. The oth­er can­di­dates are Esau Mo­hammed (vice-chair­man), St Clair O’Neil (labour re­la­tions of­fi­cer), Christo­pher George (PRO), Er­ic Hop­kins (field of­fi­cer) and Josi­mar James (youth of­fi­cer).

Sev­er­al can­di­dates whose names were false­ly list­ed on a slate cir­cu­lat­ed on so­cial me­dia, say they are con­test­ing in­de­pen­dent­ly. Among them is Al­leyne, who is con­test­ing the chair­man­ship against Ma­sai­sai and PNM whip Mar­vin Gon­za­les.

Al­leyne was sched­uled to ad­dress Port-of-Spain North/St Ann’s West mem­bers yes­ter­day at City Hall on why he of­fered him­self as an in­de­pen­dent.

For­mer min­is­ter Roger Boynes, who‘s con­test­ing the post of gen­er­al sec­re­tary against in­cum­bent Fos­ter Cum­mings and To­va Lin Sandy, al­so said he’s not as­so­ci­at­ed with any slate.

”I’m here to serve my par­ty un­der the as­tute lead­er­ship of the Ho­n­ourable Pen­ne­lope Beck­les and all who are suc­cess­ful at the up­com­ing in­ter­nal elec­tions, as we all work to­geth­er to en­sure vic­to­ry at the next gen­er­al elec­tions in 2030 or be­fore,” he said.

Wel­fare of­fi­cer Max­ine Richards, who is seek­ing re-elec­tion and is be­ing chal­lenged by Ali­cia Leg­ere, said she’s run­ning in­de­pen­dent­ly.

Mal­abar/Mau­si­ca MP Do­minic Ro­main is in­de­pen­dent­ly con­test­ing the post of so­cial me­dia of­fi­cer against Symon de No­bri­ga, Runako Williams, Shawn Dube and Krys­tle Hor­wood.

Apart from be­ing list­ed on the false slate. Ro­main was one of five peo­ple list­ed as can­di­dates from Mal­abar/Mau­si­ca but they are all con­test­ing in­de­pen­dent­ly.

“It’s not a slate,” Ro­main said.

The oth­er can­di­dates are Richards, Stern Barnes (op­er­a­tions of­fi­cer), Clay­ton Black­man (ed­u­ca­tion of­fi­cer) and San­jiv Bood­hu (elec­tions of­fi­cer).

Bood­hu, an at­tor­ney and the for­mer Cu­mu­to/Man­zanil­la can­di­date, is vy­ing for the post against in­cum­bent In­dar Paras­ram, Leslie Lynch and out­go­ing field of­fi­cer Ter­rence Beepath.

In a Face­book post, Bood­hu said: “I’ve seen a list of per­sons be­ing cir­cu­lat­ed pur­port­ed­ly as a ‘team’ con­test­ing the PNM in­ter­nal elec­tions, which in­cludes my name.

“I have filed nom­i­na­tion pa­pers for the post of elec­tions of­fi­cer of the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment as an in­di­vid­ual mem­ber of the par­ty.”

He added, “I am part of nei­ther a slate nor a team, in re­la­tion to the in­ter­nal elec­tion 2025. I have of­fered to serve the par­ty in keep­ing with my views that younger mem­bers who find them­selves suit­able and have the abil­i­ty to serve, ought to step for­ward bring­ing new per­spec­tives and ideas to the lead­er­ship of the par­ty, in the in­ter­est of con­tribut­ing to the con­tin­ued de­vel­op­ment there­of.

“Re­gard­less of the out­come of the in­ter­nal elec­tion, how­ev­er, my ded­i­ca­tion and com­mit­ment to the par­ty, and ul­ti­mate­ly to Trinidad and To­ba­go, re­mains un­wa­ver­ing­ly in­tact. I take great pride in rec­og­niz­ing and con­grat­u­lat­ing the Ho­n­ourable Pen­ne­lope Beck­les MP as the Po­lit­i­cal Leader of the PNM and the first fe­male to hold this of­fice and the of­fice of Op­po­si­tion Leader (PNM).”

Beepath al­so said he’s con­test­ing in­de­pen­dent­ly.

Ari­ma con­trac­tor Stern Barnes, who is con­test­ing the post of op­er­a­tions of­fi­cer against in­cum­bent Irene Hinds and Eber Steele-At­tong, of San Fer­nan­do, said: "I’m con­test­ing in­de­pen­dent­ly.”

Barnes was in­stru­men­tal in Ari­ma Car­ni­val ac­tiv­i­ties, bor­ough events with the of­fice of late MP Lisa Mor­ris Julien and suc­cess­ful cam­paigns with coun­cil­lors An­tho­ny Davis, Dave Ma­haraj and MP Ro­main.

For­mer min­is­ter Paula Gopee-Scoon, who is con­test­ing the vice chair­man­ship, said: "I’m not on any slate, I’m run­ning in­de­pen­dent­ly.”

She is up against Sen­a­tor Amery Browe, Peo­ple’s Cham­pi­ons can­di­date Esau Mo­hammed and for­mer Barataria/San Juan can­di­date Muhammed Yunus Ibrahim.

Cou­va busi­ness­man Nal Ram­s­ingh, whose name is on the so­cial me­dia list My Team PNM 2025, con­firmed he is part of a slate sup­port­ing Beck­les. He has been con­test­ing PNM in­ter­nal posts since 2007 and is vy­ing for the post of trea­sur­er against An­tho­ny Davis.

Mar­vin Gon­za­les, Dr Amery Browne, Dr Nyan Gads­by-Dol­ly, Fos­ter Cum­mings, Pa­tri­cia Alex­is, Faris Al-Rawi, Symon de No­bri­ga, Je­lani Reid, Hinds, Ka­reem Mar­celle, In­dar Paras­ram, who are all can­di­dates in the up­com­ing polls, could not be reached for com­ment yes­ter­day.

Cur­tis Shade said he was in­vit­ed to an Ari­ma meet­ing.

PNM sources said an event is be­ing held at an Ari­ma pa­n­yard on Sat­ur­day and Beck­les has been in­vit­ed to at­tend.

Beck­les did not re­spond to ques­tions yes­ter­day about whether she’s back­ing any slate for the elec­tion or is as­so­ci­at­ed with any so­cial me­dia lists.