Former finance minister Karen Nunez-Tesheira caused rumblings over the weekend when she announced that she had decided to run against incumbent People’s National Movement leader Dr Keith Rowley when the party’s internal elections are held in December.
Several sectors of society have since been questioning the decision or, rather, whether Nunez-Tesheira really believes she has a chance of unseating Rowley, who is also a sitting Prime Minister of two terms.
This sentiment is grounded in the fact that even the average citizen is fully aware of the PNM’s longstanding policy of never removing an incumbent political leader from office, especially as a sitting PM.
Rowley himself undertook a similar course of action in 1997 when he contested for the party leadership against a then revered Patrick Manning, now deceased, and was resoundingly beaten. Of course, Rowley, as one of the most experienced current batch of serving politicians, licked his wounds, persevered, and returned in 2010, when he managed to unseat Manning based on the tide of change members were seeking after the party lost the general election to the People’s Partnership.
In what may seem an early campaign drive to influence not only the country but party members, Nunez-Tesheira, in addressing questions on her decision, has claimed it was prompted, in part, by the urging of a segment of the party unhappy with Rowley’s current leadership, his crudeness in dealing with the public and of a series of mishaps in governance among other issues she raised.
Of course, some may question her pedigree although she comes with previous experience in government. Indeed, Nunez-Tesheira would have been classed as a political neophyte when she entered the scene in 2007, after being asked to serve as finance minister by then-Prime Minister Manning. She served in that office from 2007-2010, taking no further part in the party’s direct operations.
Yet just as she is questioning Rowley’s suitability to lead the PNM going forward, Nunez-Tesheira is not squeaky-clean heading into her impending internal campaign. Many citizens will still remember questions that arose over whether as finance minister, she used insider information when she made a withdrawal from her Clico Investment Bank account in 2007, ahead of the eventual financial implosion of Clico. Nunez-Tesheira denied any wrongdoing then, but the shadow of that incident is likely to follow her into this campaign.
Still, as a lifetime member of the PNM, she, like any other member, has a right to challenge the leader once she has the support to do so, which she claims she does. Of course, that in itself will be played out shortly as the lobbying for the support of party members develops ahead of the actual election. And like all other previous internal party elections, those members of society who are not card-carrying PNM members will await to see the outcome of this latest development, especially in terms of how the party handles the politicking of an internal campaign with a lot at stake, given that Local Government elections are also around the corner.