SHAL­IZA HAS­SANALI

Se­nior In­ves­tiga­tive Re­porter

shal­iza.has­sanali@guardian.co.tt

Over 100,000 Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) mem­bers are el­i­gi­ble to vote in to­mor­row’s in­ter­nal elec­tion.

The race will see two slates—the One PNM team un­der Pen­ne­lope Beck­les’ lead­er­ship and The Peo­ple’s Cham­pi­ons led by at­tor­ney Farai Hove Ma­sai­sai—chal­leng­ing each oth­er, with 30 in­de­pen­dents vy­ing for the 17 ex­ec­u­tive po­si­tions up for grabs. A to­tal of 51 can­di­dates will be con­test­ing the elec­tion.

The elec­tion will be held un­der the one-man one-vote sys­tem and the re­sults will be rat­i­fied at the par­ty’s spe­cial con­ven­tion on June 29.

Among those who will be vot­ing is for­mer prime min­is­ter and Port-of-Spain North/St Ann’s West MP Stu­art Young.

Young con­firmed to Guardian Me­dia yes­ter­day that he will vote at the Mu­cu­rapo Girls’ RC School.

On June 2, Beck­les was nom­i­nat­ed un­op­posed for the post of po­lit­i­cal leader.

PNM Elec­tions Su­per­vi­so­ry Com­mit­tee chair­man Richard Wal­cott told Guardian Me­dia yes­ter­day that all sys­tems are in place for a smooth vot­ing process in the 41 con­stituen­cies.

Wal­cott said over “100,200 mem­bers are el­i­gi­ble to vote” and the com­mit­tee is hop­ing to have a free and fair elec­tion.

“That is our man­date. Right now, every­thing is run­ning smooth­ly. The re­turn­ing of­fi­cers will be col­lect­ing their pack­ages to­mor­row (to­day) for the open­ing of polls on Sun­day morn­ing.”

Wal­cott said he ex­pects the re­sults of the win­ners to be an­nounced “be­fore mid­night on Sun­day.” Asked if the par­ty is ex­pect­ing a high vot­er turnout at the polls, Wal­cott said, “That all de­pends on the type of cam­paign­ing the can­di­dates did. We are hop­ing that par­ty mem­bers will come out and ex­er­cise their rights.”

Polls open from 8 am and close at 6 pm.

Yes­ter­day, Guardian Me­dia reached out to the few of the can­di­dates, who said they were ex­cit­ed about the elec­tion.

At­tor­ney and Laven­tille West MP Ka­reem Mar­celle, who is con­test­ing the youth of­fi­cer po­si­tion on the One PNM slate, said he was con­fi­dent. Mar­celle will come up against Josi­mar James and Aben Phillip-Brooks.

“I be­lieve that my track record in youth ad­vo­ca­cy speaks for it­self in dif­fer­ent com­mu­ni­ties,” Mar­celle said, adding his team ran a good cam­paign.

Fol­low­ing the elec­tion, Mar­celle said he in­tends to bring a mo­tion be­fore the gen­er­al coun­cil with­in 100 days, so the par­ty can adopt an of­fi­cial pol­i­cy “to give the young peo­ple an op­por­tu­ni­ty to have their voic­es be heard.”

Hav­ing con­test­ed the po­si­tion of so­cial me­dia of­fi­cer in 2022, Mal­abar/Mau­si­ca MP Do­minic Ro­main is go­ing at it again as an in­de­pen­dent. In the last elec­tion, Ro­main gar­nered over 2,000 votes but was un­suc­cess­ful. He feels his chances are far bet­ter in this elec­tion.

Of the 17 po­si­tions, Ro­main said the post of so­cial me­dia of­fi­cer has the largest num­ber of can­di­dates—five—in­clud­ing for­mer com­mu­ni­ca­tions min­is­ter Symon de No­bri­ga.

“So, I guess it’s all go­ing to be about the turnout,” Ro­main said.

Don­na Cox will be vy­ing for the la­dy vice chair post, ter­ri­to­ry she has cov­ered be­fore in the par­ty.

“I feel com­fort­able. I know based on my past per­for­mance ... those who have been in the Women’s League ... I know that I have a good chance be­cause they know of my ser­vice,” said Cox, an in­de­pen­dent can­di­date.

“I am con­test­ing not just for po­si­tion but for pur­pose.”

For­mer ed­u­ca­tion min­is­ter Dr Nyan Gads­by-Dol­ly is Cox’s main chal­lenger.

The for­mer So­cial De­vel­op­ment min­is­ter said she chose to run as an in­de­pen­dent “be­cause I don’t be­lieve in cliques where lead­er­ship is con­cerned.”

“Lead­er­ship is not about, you know, just be­cause we are friends or we hang or we lime to­geth­er or you like some­body or you don’t like them. You must be ca­pa­ble and will­ing to do the job,” she said, adding it was all about putting peo­ple first.

Vy­ing for the post of vice chair­man on the One PNM slate, for­mer For­eign and Cari­com Af­fairs min­is­ter Dr Amery Browne said he was op­ti­mistic and con­fi­dent about the par­ty’s fu­ture as they re­build and re­con­nect with the peo­ple.

“In­spired by our leader-elect, I look for­ward to con­tribut­ing as vice chair­man to our suc­cess in mak­ing the PNM bet­ter than ever be­fore, and be­ing able to of­fer T&T a high­er stan­dard of gov­er­nance when we earn the op­por­tu­ni­ty to do so,” Browne said.

Mean­while, Arou­ca/Lopinot MP Mar­vin Gon­za­les said he was ex­cit­ed to vie for the post of chair­man un­der Beck­les’ slate.

“I con­sid­er my­self very priv­i­leged to of­fer my ser­vice to the par­ty at this se­nior lev­el. I am very grate­ful to the par­ty for giv­ing me the op­por­tu­ni­ty to re­al­ly bring about mean­ing­ful change and a pos­i­tive im­pact on the lives of so many cit­i­zens across T&T when I served as pub­lic util­i­ties min­is­ter, na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty min­is­ter and oth­er cab­i­net sub-com­mit­tees.”

Gon­za­les said com­ing out of the 2025 Gen­er­al Elec­tion, it was time to help re­build.

“I am look­ing for­ward to work­ing with the par­ty to en­sur­ing the PNM re­turns to gov­ern­ment.”

Guardian Me­dia al­so reached out to for­mer prime min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley to en­quire if he would be vot­ing but he did not re­spond.