Ani­ka Gumbs-San­di­ford

?Peo­ple's Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) rep­re­sen­ta­tives are eye­ing 23 seats in the up­com­ing gen­er­al elec­tion. The tar­get is three few­er than what the par­ty won in the 2007 poll. The PNM cap­tured 26 seats, while the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress-Al­liance got 15. While con­stituents of Ari­ma and St Ann's East have threat­ened to re­frain from vot­ing be­cause their can­di­dates were re­ject­ed, top par­ty sources who are part of the elec­tion ma­chin­ery re­vealed to Sun­day Guardian that the tough seats to bring home the PNM are San Juan/Barataria, Pointe-a-Pierre, and Princes Town South/Table­land. "It is go­ing to be a slim, slim fight. We are see­ing be­tween 22 to 23 seats; and we are not tak­ing any chances with the two To­ba­go seats. There is no con­cern over Ari­ma and St Ann's East; change is some­times good. It is go­ing to be a tight race, but we are go­ing to win," the source said."

With re­gards to the re­jec­tion of MPs Pen­ne­lope Beck­les-Robin­son, An­tho­ny Roberts and Ren­nie Du­mas, a well-placed source said a di­rec­tive from the hi­er­ar­chy was that new faces made a dif­fer­ence. "Since the last snap elec­tion, there has been spec­u­la­tion on a re­volt with­in the par­ty. There would have been some an­i­mos­i­ty fol­low­ing the re­moval of Roberts as a Cab­i­net min­is­ter. "He was per­form­ing, and no ex­pla­na­tion was giv­en for him be­ing dropped. With re­gards to Beck­les-Robin­son, she was be­ing in­cre­men­tal­ly edged out since the al­lo­ca­tion of the last Cab­i­net. Deputy speak­er is a non-post. When Ra­hael was of­fered the post, he point-blank turned it down and opt­ed to grow toma­toes when he ac­cept­ed the post of Min­is­ter of Agri­cul­ture."

An­oth­er par­ty source, how­ev­er, ex­pressed shock over the with­draw­al of Du­mas from the elec­tion race. "There have been ru­mours...What I can say for sure he was forced out." Asked if in­cum­bent Diego Mar­tin West MP Kei­th Row­ley had been ac­cept­ed back in­to the fold, the source said Row­ley had a key part to play in the par­ty's vic­to­ry. "His ac­cep­tance as a can­di­date has ce­ment­ed the par­ty's vic­to­ry. I am ab­solute­ly sure if a poll is done now, it will show sup­port of the par­ty has in­creased by five per cent."