While Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) mem­bers at­tend­ed a meet­ing of the Cen­tral Ex­ec­u­tive at Bal­isi­er House yes­ter­day, ahead of the Gen­er­al Coun­cil meet­ing to­mor­row, the op­po­si­tion Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) claims they were sum­moned to be lam­bast­ed over their re­sponse to En­er­gy Min­is­ter Stu­art Young be­ing cho­sen as Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley’s suc­ces­sor.

Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress deputy po­lit­i­cal leader Jear­lean John told Guardian Me­dia dur­ing a tele­phone in­ter­view yes­ter­day that the PNM is not as sta­ble as Row­ley would have the pub­lic be­lieve.

She claimed the par­ty is im­plod­ing fol­low­ing Row­ley’s an­nounce­ment on Mon­day that 11 MPs vot­ed in favour of Port-of-Spain North/St Ann’s West MP (Young), while nine vot­ed for Plan­ning Min­is­ter and Ari­ma MP Pen­ne­lope Beck­les-Robin­son to lead the par­ty af­ter Row­ley re­signs be­fore the end of his term.

John added that she ex­pect­ed the meet­ing to be far from civ­il.

“I’m just sad on be­half of the peo­ple of Trinidad and To­ba­go. I’m sad on be­half of the sup­port­ers of the PNM be­cause they are our broth­ers and sis­ters that they have to tol­er­ate this fool­ish­ness from this very ir­re­spon­si­ble man they call Kei­th Christo­pher Row­ley and his side­kick, Row­ley 2— Stu­art Young. All in the pur­suit of naked pow­er. They don’t care. For them, if Trinidad bun down, them go live in the ash­es.

“I hear is not no emer­gency meet­ing they have there, you know, is an emer­gency cuss out. I hear is re­al bac­cha­nal in­side of there and don’t be sur­prised if at the end of their meet­ing, Row­ley go and dis­solve the Par­lia­ment,” John said.

She claimed the dis­con­tent is due to a cross-sec­tion of the par­ty not sup­port­ing Young, with Row­ley be­ing his biggest backer.

“They eh back­ing down. None of them eh back­ing down. He want Young, and the rest of them are say­ing ‘we need for you to re­vert to the PNM con­sti­tu­tion and go to one man, one vote. Just as he had un­der­writ­ten ear­ly in his tenure, one man, one vote. Now he wants ‘Young’ man, no vote.”

De­spite spec­u­la­tion of strife in the PNM, John said the UNC is not cel­e­brat­ing.

“We eh gloat­ing or any­thing like that be­cause as the Gov­ern­ment has col­lapsed, is who los­es? Is our cit­i­zens, our peo­ple. Is just that there’s a sense of sad­ness and loss.”

Mean­while, John agreed with PEP leader Phillip Ed­ward Alexan­der’s as­ser­tion that the Op­po­si­tion Leader holds the ma­jor­i­ty of sup­port in Par­lia­ment, giv­en the PNM’s lead­er­ship is­sues in­side and out­side of the House.

How­ev­er, she dis­agreed with his sug­ges­tion that the Pres­i­dent should ap­point Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar as prime min­is­ter, in­stead she wants a gen­er­al elec­tion.

“He is telling the truth. PNM has now bro­ken up fine, fine, fine.

“Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar, as it stands right now, is the most suit­ed to be­come the Prime Min­is­ter of Trinidad and To­ba­go, both nu­mer­i­cal­ly and based on the lev­el of skill, tal­ent, tem­pera­ment, and the abil­i­ty to lead.

“The readi­ness to lead is Kam­la. Row­ley has col­lapsed; he needs to go home. We want an elec­tion. We re­al­ly don’t want any sim­my-dim­my and thing.”