Gail Alexan­der

Se­nior Po­lit­i­cal re­porter

June 2 is nom­i­na­tion day for can­di­dates in the Peo­ple's Na­tion­al Move­ment's (PNM) June 29 in­ter­nal elec­tion.

And some elect­ed MPs are sup­port­ing Op­po­si­tion Leader Pen­ny Beck­les for the po­lit­i­cal leader po­si­tion, while oth­ers are con­sid­er­ing seek­ing posts on the ex­ec­u­tive.

Al­so, some cur­rent ex­ec­u­tive mem­bers won’t be seek­ing re-elec­tion.

This, fol­low­ing last Fri­day’s an­nounce­ment by PNM PRO Faris Al-Rawi that the par­ty’s Gen­er­al Coun­cil had agreed vot­ing would be open for all 16 ex­ec­u­tive posts fol­low­ing the April 28 Gen­er­al Elec­tion de­feat to the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress.

Al-Rawi said Beck­les had said she would seek the post of leader and per­sons who spoke at the Gen­er­al Coun­cil meet­ing sup­port­ed that. Al-Rawi said he sup­port­ed Beck­les for leader.

Yes­ter­day, Bri­an Man­ning, who was re-elect­ed San Fer­nan­do East MP, said, "Pen­ny has my full sup­port and en­dorse­ment. She has found favour with the mem­ber­ship of the par­ty. If there's one les­son we should have learned by now it is that we, as a par­ty should lis­ten to the peo­ple,”

On whether he will con­test a post on the ex­ec­u­tive, Man­ning added, “I am leav­ing my op­tions open and lis­ten­ing to the voice of the peo­ple.”

Mar­vin Gon­za­les, who won the Arou­ca/Lopinot seat, con­firmed, "I’m sup­port­ing Pen­ny for the po­si­tion of po­lit­i­cal leader of the PNM.”

On if he will con­test a post on the ex­ec­u­tive, Gon­za­les said, “I haven’t yet de­cid­ed which po­si­tion on the ex­ec­u­tive I’ll con­test."

There has been grow­ing sup­port in some PNM quar­ters for Gon­za­les to seek a post, in­clud­ing chair­man or vice chair­man.

Kei­th Scot­land, who was re-elect­ed Port-of-Spain South MP, said he's sup­port­ing Beck­les but hadn't giv­en thought to seek­ing an ex­ec­u­tive post.

Ka­reem Mar­celle, who won the Laven­tille West seat, said, "I’m sup­port­ing Mrs Beck­les-Robin­son 100 per cent ...”

Mar­celle added that he was al­so con­sid­er­ing seek­ing a post on the ex­ec­u­tive.

For­mer For­eign and Cari­com Af­fairs Min­is­ter Dr Amery Browne told Guardian Me­dia that hav­ing been a mem­ber of the PNM for the past 30 years, he would be giv­ing con­sid­er­a­tion to serv­ing on the ex­ec­u­tive "... in a po­si­tion oth­er than po­lit­i­cal leader dur­ing this pe­ri­od of re­build­ing."

There is al­so strong sup­port among some PN­Mites for Browne to be­come a PNM deputy leader or chair­man.

Chris­t­ian Birch­wood, who was elect­ed Laven­tille East/Mor­vant MP, re­served his re­sponse on who he'd sup­port as po­lit­i­cal leader, as he was guid­ed by one of PNM's fun­da­men­tal codes, "That is: we must se­lect can­di­dates with the great­est care. I don't know all who in­tend to of­fer them­selves. It's on­ly af­ter this is known and all can­di­dates present their case for lead­er­ship, and with con­sul­ta­tion from Laven­tille East/Mor­vant, a de­ci­sion can be made."

Birch­wood won't be of­fer­ing him­self for any ex­ec­u­tive po­si­tion, "as my ob­jec­tive as a new­ly mint­ed MP is to fo­cus on serv­ing Laven­tille East/Mor­vant con­stituents to the best of my abil­i­ty."

"While my fu­ture am­bi­tions may per­mit me to of­fer my­self one day, I'll be com­mit­ted to learn­ing from the par­ty's el­ders like Ms Mar­i­lyn Gor­don, Joan Yuille-Williams, Ash­ton Ford, Fer­die Fer­reira to name a few, so I may be­come an ex­pe­ri­enced par­lia­men­tar­i­an my­self," he said.

Do­minic Ro­main, who was elect­ed Mal­abar Mau­si­ca MP, said he didn't know all the con­tenders for leader yet. Re­gard­ing con­test­ing a post on the ex­ec­u­tive, Ro­main said he’d sought the post of so­cial me­dia of­fi­cer in the 2022 in­ter­nal elec­tion and will con­sid­er seek­ing that post again.

Cur­rent so­cial me­dia of­fi­cer Kwasi Robin­son and youth of­fi­cer Je­niece Scott will not be seek­ing re-elec­tion.

As­sis­tant gen­er­al sec­re­tary Pa­tri­cia Alex­is and op­er­a­tions of­fi­cer Irene Hinds said they will seek their posts again. Wel­fare Of­fi­cer Max­ine Richards said she had not yet made a de­ci­sion on con­test­ing.

Sources con­firmed that for­mer min­is­ter Kaz­im Ho­sein, who holds the post of trea­sur­er, will not be seek­ing any ex­ec­u­tive post.