Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) Gen­er­al Sec­re­tary Fos­ter Cum­mings is de­fend­ing the vot­er turnout in the par­ty’s in­ter­nal elec­tions on Sun­day, at­tribut­ing it to the fact that the post of po­lit­i­cal leader was un­con­test­ed.

Of the 102,300 el­i­gi­ble mem­bers to vote, on­ly 7,100 vot­ed dur­ing the process as po­lit­i­cal leader Pen­ne­lope Beck­les’ One PNM slate took 14 of 15 ex­ec­u­tive po­si­tions, ac­cord­ing to pre­lim­i­nary re­sults pro­vid­ed by the par­ty’s Elec­tion Su­per­vi­so­ry Com­mit­tee.

Dur­ing a me­dia brief­ing at the Of­fice of the Op­po­si­tion Leader in Port-of-Spain yes­ter­day, how­ev­er, Cum­mings re­vealed that less than 10,000 vot­ed in the par­ty’s last in­ter­nal elec­tion as well.

“The over­all turnout for the elec­tion was ap­prox­i­mate­ly 7,100 per­sons. I make the point that the po­si­tion of po­lit­i­cal leader was un­con­test­ed. When the po­si­tion of po­lit­i­cal leader is con­test­ed, that sort of dri­ves per­sons to want to come out to par­tic­i­pate,” he said.

“We went up to elect the re­main­ing mem­bers of the ex­ec­u­tive mi­nus the po­lit­i­cal leader, who no­body chal­lenged … We had an elec­tion in 2022 and the turnout was 9,100 and the po­si­tion of po­lit­i­cal leader was con­test­ed.”

Fol­low­ing the par­ty’s April 28 Gen­er­al Elec­tion beat­ing by the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress, many PNM mem­bers had called for an in­ter­nal elec­tion as ear­ly as pos­si­ble, so the par­ty could re­vamp it­self go­ing for­ward. Mem­bers had al­so called on Cum­mings to re­sign in the wake of the de­feat, as they tar­get­ed him as one of the per­sons re­spon­si­ble for the par­ty’s demise.

De­spite this, Cum­mings re­tained his ex­ec­u­tive po­si­tion, re­ceiv­ing 4,122 votes in beat­ing con­tenders Roger Boynes (2,620) and To­va Lin Sandy (687).

The re­sults will be rat­i­fied at the par­ty’s con­ven­tion this week­end.