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Wednesday, July 9, 2025

Defeated PNM candidates say they’re dedicated to the party

by

12 days ago
20250627

Sev­er­al un­suc­cess­ful can­di­dates from last week­end’s Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) in­ter­nal elec­tion, in­clud­ing Roger Boynes, San­jiv Bood­hu and Port-of-Spain May­or Chin­ua Al­leyne, will be at­tend­ing the par­ty’s con­ven­tion this Sun­day.

All three con­firmed their at­ten­dance.

Boynes, who un­suc­cess­ful­ly con­test­ed the post of gen­er­al sec­re­tary, is­sued a state­ment yes­ter­day where he con­tin­ued to claim elec­tion ir­reg­u­lar­i­ties may con­sti­tute grounds for a le­gal chal­lenge to the elec­tion process.

How­ev­er, Boynes said he is now fo­cused on as­sist­ing to re­build the PNM and will at­tend Sun­day’s con­ven­tion.

“In the spir­it of re­build­ing the par­ty, I rec­om­mend we use the con­cerns I’ve high­light­ed here to rem­e­dy mis­takes made and work to­geth­er with our po­lit­i­cal leader to re­build a great par­ty and a great na­tion. If the po­lit­i­cal leader, calls, I’m here to as­sist,” Boynes added.

The venue for the con­ven­tion was ini­tial­ly an­nounced on Wednes­day as Li­ons Cul­tur­al Cen­tre. But it has been changed to the Port-of-Spain City Hall.

Boynes’ state­ment fol­lowed Wednes­day’s me­dia brief­ing by PNM leader-elect Pen­ne­lope Beck­les, gen­er­al sec­re­tary Fos­ter Cum­mings and par­ty stal­wart and MP Colm Im­bert. Beck­les has said she will reach out to de­feat­ed can­di­dates from the gen­er­al elec­tion and the par­ty’s in­ter­nal poll.

Al­leyne, who un­suc­cess­ful­ly con­test­ed the post of chair­man, said yes­ter­day, “I’ll def­i­nite­ly be at­tend­ing Sun­day’s PNM con­ven­tion to wit­ness an his­toric mo­ment for us as a par­ty when our first fe­male po­lit­i­cal leader takes of­fice. I’d like to con­grat­u­late the Ho­n­ourable, Pen­ne­lope Beck­les on this great achieve­ment and will con­tin­ue to sup­port her in whichev­er way I can.”

Bood­hu, who lost in his bid to be­come elec­tions of­fi­cer, said he would al­so be at­tend­ing.

Peo­ple’s Cham­pi­ons slate leader Farai Hove Masa­sai said he would know by to­day (Fri­day) if he and his team would at­tend as they were meet­ing last evening. Ma­sai­sai re­signed from PNM’s Gen­er­al Coun­cil on Wednes­day af­ter los­ing his bid for chair­man­ship.

Some PNM mem­bers want Beck­les to urge him to re­con­sid­er, “Re­build­ing re­quires all,” they said.

— Gail Alexan­der


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