Gail Alexan­der

Spot­light Mon­day on PN­Mites seek­ing to run the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) ahead.

The race in­cludes Rur­al De­vel­op­ment/Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment Min­is­ter Faris Al-Rawi who’s seek­ing the post of PNM Pub­lic Re­la­tions Of­fi­cer–which he held be­fore in 2014.

And there’s spec­u­la­tion about the pos­si­bil­i­ty of En­er­gy Min­is­ter Stu­art Young for the chair­man­ship. That’s cur­rent­ly held by Fi­nance Min­is­ter Colm Im­bert.

Both Al- Rawi and Young are be­ing sup­port­ed for re­spec­tive posts un­der the hash­tag called “We The Peo­ple” (WTP) which is al­so sup­port­ing sev­er­al oth­er new nom­i­nees.

This, as the PNM opens nom­i­na­tions from 8 am to 4 pm on Mon­day for its up­com­ing ex­ec­u­tive elec­tions. Vot­ing will be a three- day process over No­vem­ber 26 to 27 with the fi­nal leg at the PNM’s con­ven­tion on De­cem­ber 4.

The 16 posts in­clud­ing lead­er­ship–held by Prime Min­is­ter Kei­th Row­ley –are open for con­test. The term is un­til 2026.

Par­ty of­fi­cials con­firmed nom­i­na­tion forms can be sent by email or de­liv­ered in per­son at PNM’s cur­rent base in cen­tral Trinidad . Its new Bal­isi­er House Head­quar­ters, in Port of Spain, is un­der re­con­struc­tion .

Nom­i­na­tions are done by par­ty groups with a nom­i­nee’s con­sent. The full list of nom­i­na­tion will be re­leased by PNM’s Elec­tion Su­per­vi­so­ry com­mit­tee on Tues­day.

The cur­rent ex­ec­u­tive com­pris­es “ Team Red” which was the slate Row­ley head­ed in PNM’s 2018 ex­ec­u­tive elec­tions. That team won all posts against 11 in­de­pen­dents.

The posts of Wel­fare Of­fi­cer and Vice Chair­man have been va­cant for some time. Jo­ce­lyn Bod­den, who was Wel­fare Of­fi­cer, died in 2021. Robert Le Hunte re­signed as Vice Chair­man in Jan­u­ary af­ter quit­ting as Pub­lic Util­i­ties Min­is­ter in 2021 .

PNM mem­bers ex­pect “keen con­test” –up to Sun­day chal­lenge was loom­ing for sev­er­al in­cum­bents.

One-time Fi­nance Min­is­ter Karen Nunez- Tesheira is seek­ing the lead­er­ship held by Row­ley .

The last per­son to chal­lenge him was (cur­rent Plan­ning Min­is­ter ) Pen­ne­lope Beck­les in 2014 . Beck­les lost with 1, 315 votes to Row­ley’s 18,121.

Nom­i­na­tion spec­u­la­tion has been height­ened by so­cial me­dia blurbs– in red with a Bal­isi­er–from “We The Peo­ple” (WTP) en­ti­ty. PNM of­fi­cials said they didn’t know who WTP was– whether Row­ley or any­one else’s slate, group or oth­er­wise.

Tipped so far ...

Among de­vel­op­ments so far:

• ↓In­cum­bent Ed­u­ca­tion Of­fi­cer Overand Pad­more didn’t an­swer calls on if he’s con­test­ing or not.

• ↓Trea­sur­er Howard Chin Lee didn’t re­spond to query if he’ll con­test.

• ↓So­cial Me­dia of­fi­cer Avinash Singh (Min­is­ter in Agri­cul­ture) hasn’t an­swered calls on if he’s con­test­ing. Kwasi Robin­son and oth­ers are tipped to con­test.

• ↓Cur­rent PRO Lau­rel Leza­ma Lee Sing is tipped among oth­ers con­test­ing Ed­u­ca­tion of­fi­cer.

• ↓MTS CEO Lennox Rat­tans­ingh isn’t con­test­ing Ed­u­ca­tion of­fi­cer though sup­port­ed by WTP for that post .

• ↓Al- Rawi is con­test­ing PRO. He was elect­ed PRO in PNM’s 2014 elec­tions on Row­ley’s team. He stepped down when PNM won 2015 gen­er­al elec­tions and he be­came At­tor­ney Gen­er­al.

• ↓Young didn’t re­spond to queries up to yes­ter­day on con­test­ing chair­man­ship, af­ter his name was float­ed as hav­ing WTP sup­port.

• ↓In­cum­bent chair­man Im­bert didn’t an­swer queries if he’s con­test­ing chair­man­ship or not.

• ↓Min­is­ter in Fi­nance Bri­an Man­ning said last week he’s con­test­ing Vice chair­man.

• ↓Ed­u­ca­tion Min­is­ter Nyan Gads­by Dolly had WTP sup­port for Vice chair­man. She said last week she was giv­ing it strong con­sid­er­a­tion - but didn’t re­ply to sub­se­quent query on de­ci­sion.

• ↓Op­er­a­tions of­fi­cer is tipped to be con­test­ed in­clud­ing by in­cum­bent Irene Hinds who has WTP sup­port.

• ↓Tabaquite chair­man Cur­tis Shade’s name was float­ed by WTP for Field of­fi­cer held by Ab­don Ma­son . Shade said he couldn’t com­ment on con­test­ing un­til to­day.

• ↓La­dy Vice chair­man Camille Robin­son- Reg­is who’s con­test­ing, is said to be un­op­posed

• ↓Al­so Gen­er­al sec­re­tary Fos­ter Cum­mings .

• ↓Al­so: Elec­tions of­fi­cer In­dar Paras­ram.

• ↓Agri­cul­ture Min­is­ter Kaz­im Ho­sein didn’t an­swer queries if he’s con­test­ing . His name was float­ed for Trea­sur­er.

• ↓Max­ine Richards said last week she hadn’t de­cid­ed yet on con­test­ing Wel­fare of­fi­cer.

• ↓Labour Re­la­tions Of­fi­cer Jen­nifer Bap­tiste- Primus is among con­tenders for that post .

• ↓As­sis­tant Gen­er­al Sec­re­tary Daniel Dook­ie is con­test­ing plus oth­ers.

• ↓Youth Of­fi­cer is tipped to be con­test­ed by in­cum­bent Ndale Young and oth­ers.

Oth­er min­is­ters not con­test­ing

Beck­les, whose name was on an un­of­fi­cial “list” be­ing cir­cu­lat­ed re­cent­ly, hasn’t an­swered query if she’s con­test­ing .

Sev­er­al PN­Mites, whose names were al­so on “lists” to con­test, aren’t in­volved in the elec­tion in­clud­ing Min­is­ters Mar­vin Gon­za­les, Stephen McLashie, Paula Gopee -Scoon; as well as Sha­ka Subero, Joel Primus, Mar­i­ano Browne, Pearce Robin­son, Make­da Cam­bridge, Nal Rm­s­ingh, Hillan More­an and oth­ers

The No­vem­ber vot­ing will be at cen­tres around T&T in­clud­ing schools. The De­cem­ber 4 leg will be at the con­ven­tion venue–Queen’s Park Sa­van­nah.

PNM of­fi­cials in­di­cat­ed there are about 100,000 mem­bers reg­is­tered. Post pan­dem­ic PNM held con­stituen­cy ex­ec­u­tive elec­tions - and mem­ber­ship dri­ves - from Ju­ly .

Non fi­nan­cial mem­bers can vote in the up­com­ing elec­tion . This will be a one man/one vote sys­tem. PN­Mites will re­ceive a polling card to vote.