Gail Alexan­der

A group with­in the Peo­ple's Na­tion­al Move­ment called Lead­ers in Ser­vice, who are con­test­ing the up­com­ing in­ter­nal elec­tions, will be launched tonight at the Bel­mont Com­mu­ni­ty Cen­tre. It's be­ing de­scribed as the "Win­ning Team" and Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley's name is list­ed for the post of po­lit­i­cal leader.

In­for­ma­tion on the launch came from the LIS, via PNM gen­er­al sec­re­tary Fos­ter Cum­mings, who said the pre­sen­ta­tion of the slate of LIS can­di­dates will be done in Diego Mar­tin on Sun­day.

Cum­mings urged PN­Mites to vote in elec­tion, since he stat­ed, "Be­lieve me when I say that the stakes are just too high to sit this one out."

Cum­mings al­so had a Tik­Tok mes­sage about Wednes­day's LIS launch. He said the im­por­tance of the poll was to give the PNM "the best chance" to win Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment and gen­er­al elec­tions. He said mo­ments like the in­ter­nal elec­tion will "shape every­thing that's yet to come - it's sim­ply that im­por­tant."

The par­ty's elec­tions are card­ed for No­vem­ber 26-27 and De­cem­ber 4.

On Tues­day, the LIS team said Camille Robin­son-Reg­is, Dr Nyan Gads­by Dol­ly, Stu­art Young and Cum­mings are slat­ed to speak.

LIS' can­di­dates are list­ed as: Dr Kei­th Row­ley (Po­lit­i­cal leader), Stu­art Young (Chair­man), Dr Nyan Gads­by-Dol­ly (Vice chair­man, Camille Robin­son-Reg­is (La­dy vice chair­man un­op­posed), Fos­ter Cum­mings (Gen­er­al sec­re­tary un­op­posed), Pa­tri­cia Alex­is (As­sis­tant gen­er­al sec­re­tary), Kaz­im Ho­sein (Trea­sur­er), Lau­rel Leza­ma-Lee Sing (Ed­u­ca­tion of­fi­cer), Faris Al-Rawi (PRO un­op­posed), Jen­nifer Bap­tiste- Primus (Labour re­la­tions), In­dar Paras­ram (Elec­tions of­fi­cer), Ter­rence Beepath (Elec­tions of­fi­cer), Max­ine Richards (Wel­fare of­fi­cer), Je­niece Scott (Youth of­fi­cer), Kwasi Robin­son (So­cial me­dia of­fi­cer) and Irene Hinds (Op­er­a­tions of­fi­cer).

Row­ley is be­ing chal­lenged by for­mer PNM Min­is­ter Karen Nunez-Tesheira, Ronald Boynes and Ju­nior Bar­rack.

Apart from the LIS' 16 mem­bers, there are 23 oth­er peo­ple con­test­ing posts against them, in­clud­ing the Peo­ple's' Cham­pi­ons team.

For­mer PNM min­is­ter Ali­cia Hospedales, who's con­test­ing Wel­fare of­fi­cer with the PC, said that team is head­ed by at­tor­ney Farai Hove Ma­sai­sai, who's con­test­ing the chair­man post.

Cum­mings' mes­sage to PNM par­ty mem­bers in the Diego Mar­tin con­stituen­cies un­der­scored the se­ri­ous­ness of the race.

"In one month, the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment is go­ing to face a choice. Mo­ments like this up­com­ing elec­tion will shape every­thing that is go­ing to come af­ter. It’s that con­se­quen­tial. The PNM and I need you on our side in these up­com­ing in­ter­nal elec­tions, so I’m count­ing on you to show your sup­port for the Lead­ers in Ser­vice Team be­fore it’s too late.

"Our team is an ex­cit­ing mix of young new­ly ex­pe­ri­enced can­di­dates to lead­ers with grav­i­tas and years of ex­per­tise in good gov­er­nance. Give the PNM the best chance to win the up­com­ing lo­cal elec­tions and the next gen­er­al elec­tions ..."

He added, "Times like these re­quire folks like you ris­ing to meet the mo­ment. And be­lieve me when I say that the stakes are just too high to sit this one out. Let’s keep the mo­men­tum go­ing on this course."

Cum­mings didn't re­ply to calls or What­sApped queries. Row­ley didn't re­ply to queries ei­ther. How­ev­er, on his Face­book page, Row­ley re­cent­ly said he'd been very care­ful not to have put to­geth­er any team or slate for the elec­tion.