Gail Alexan­der

Se­nior Po­lit­i­cal Re­porter

Cer­tain for­mer Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) min­is­ters are tipped to be ap­point­ed op­po­si­tion sen­a­tors, ac­cord­ing to PNM sources.

This is af­ter Tues­day’s in­stal­la­tion of Pen­ne­lope Beck­les as Op­po­si­tion Leader.

It’s un­der­stood that Beck­les, in her ad­dress to the PNM’s Gen­er­al Coun­cil on Tues­day, sig­nalled that the PNM’s sen­a­tors will com­prise ex­pe­ri­ence, youth and To­ba­go in­put, and she asked peo­ple to “pray for her to make the right de­ci­sion.”

Flank­ing Beck­les in pho­tos af­ter her in­stal­la­tion at Pres­i­dent’s House were two for­mer lead­ers of PNM gov­ern­ment busi­ness in the Par­lia­ment over 2020-2025—for­mer min­is­ters Amery Browne (past Sen­ate leader) and Ter­rence Deyals­ingh (who act­ed on oc­ca­sion as gov­ern­ment busi­ness leader in the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives).

Al­so among the guests was de­feat­ed can­di­date Faris Al-Rawi (a for­mer At­tor­ney Gen­er­al).

PNM sources tipped all three for the Sen­ate, as well as de­feat­ed can­di­date Fos­ter Cum­mings. An econ­o­mist is al­so tipped.

Sources could not con­firm if To­ba­go in­put might come from de­feat­ed To­ba­go West can­di­date Sham­fa Cud­joe-Lewis (who lost to TPP’s Joel Samp­son by 109 votes), a for­mer PNM sen­a­tor, or To­ba­go’s busi­ness sec­tor.

The pres­ence of for­mer Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) dis­si­dent MP Ani­ta Haynes-Al­leyne at Tues­day’s in­stal­la­tion of Beck­les al­so sparked spec­u­la­tion about whether she would be among PNM Sen­a­tors. Haynes-Al­leyne, who had been among the Paray dis­si­dent MP group in the UNC, had ap­peared at PNM’s fi­nal gen­er­al elec­tion ral­ly in Tu­na­puna.

Some PN­Mites dis­missed Haynes-Al­leyne’s pres­ence at the in­stal­la­tion as sig­nalling a pos­si­ble Sen­ate seat. They not­ed she is a mem­ber of the Women’s Par­lia­men­tar­i­ans’ arm to which Beck­les al­so be­longs. They felt that Haynes-Al­leyne, while use­ful to the PNM as provo­ca­tion for the UNC, will, how­ev­er, be “shred­ded by the UNC” in Par­lia­ment UNC-PNM bat­tles, which they ex­pect to be fierce with the Gov­ern­ment’s 26-seat ma­jor­i­ty and the TPP’s two seats. Haynes-Alleyene did not re­ply to Guardian Me­dia’s queries on the mat­ter.

“You nev­er know… She seemed to be a good par­lia­men­tar­i­an, was favoured by UNC’s leader and was re­gard­ed as promis­ing be­fore they all fell out,” sources added.

While some PN­Mites be­lieve the role of Op­po­si­tion Whip in the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives could go to the new PNM chair­man, Nyan Gads­by-Dol­ly or suc­cess­ful Arou­ca Lopinot can­di­date Mar­vin Gon­za­les, oth­er PN­Mites be­lieve the post should go to the new vice chair­man, Colm Im­bert.

Im­bert told the me­dia at Tues­day’s PNM brief­ing that he is now the longest-serv­ing par­lia­men­tar­i­an on the PNM side but made it clear that younger peo­ple were need­ed and he would not be seek­ing a post in the PNM’s up­com­ing ex­ec­u­tive elec­tion.

PNM sources not­ed Im­bert holds four de­grees and, apart from be­ing an en­gi­neer­ing spe­cial­ist, is al­so qual­i­fied in en­er­gy, fi­nance and law and holds ex­pan­sive po­lit­i­cal in­sti­tu­tion­al mem­o­ry of all on the PNM side.

“De man is ah walk­ing en­cy­clopae­dia,” a sup­port­er added.

Af­ter the res­ig­na­tion of for­mer leader Dr Kei­th Row­ley, chair­man Stu­art Young and deputy leader/cam­paign man­ag­er Ro­han Sinanan last week, a num­ber of PN­Mites from var­i­ous mar­gin­al con­stituen­cies ex­pressed the view that the en­tire ex­ec­u­tive should al­so have of­fered res­ig­na­tions and “go!”