Gail Alexan­der

Fi­nal search.

The PNM’s La Brea unit is now search­ing for a third time for nom­i­nees and is like­ly to fi­nal­ly have a can­di­date by the end of this week.

And, af­ter PNM’s lead­er­ship again ad­dressed the ex­ec­u­tive last Sat­ur­day night, mem­bers of the ex­ec­u­tive are now sat­is­fied the can­di­date won’t be for­mer min­is­ter Robert Le Hunte. That in­clud­ed mem­bers who strong­ly sup­port­ed Le Hunte last week.

La Brea’s ex­ec­u­tive was ad­dressed by PNM’s lead­er­ship af­ter the lead­er­ship and screen­ing team in­ter­viewed 13 La Brea nom­i­nees on Sat­ur­day. But af­ter al­most five hours none were cho­sen

PNM ex­ec­u­tive chair­man Wayne Wood said at the end of the ex­er­cise—around 10 pm—no one was cho­sen. The unit was ad­vised to search again for nom­i­nees to present Thurs­day.

This is the third hunt. La Brea was asked to do so a cou­ple weeks ago when for­mer min­is­ter Le Hunte wasn’t ac­cept­ed by the screen­ing team. Though he’d re­signed as min­is­ter, he was rec­om­mend­ed by the ex­ec­u­tive which con­tin­ued to sup­port him even af­ter four nom­i­nees were lat­er found .

PNM’s lead­er­ship ad­dressed the ex­ec­u­tive then and La Brea was man­dat­ed to search a sec­ond time. While the ex­ec­u­tive’s chair­man fol­lowed the par­ty’s man­date to search afresh, Le Hunte con­tin­ued to have sup­port from some ex­ec­u­tive mem­bers such as David Big­ford and oth­ers at a vote tak­en last Wednes­day. Those mem­bers clashed with the ex­ec­u­tive’s chair­man.

When the ex­ec­u­tive at­tend­ed last Sat­ur­day’s screen­ing, some of those mem­bers—such Big­ford—who sup­port­ed Le Hunte, were ab­sent.

Af­ter screen­ing of the 13 nom­i­nees—in­clud­ing a for­mer SWRHA head, two doc­tors and oth­er pro­fes­sion­als—it’s un­der­stood the lead­er­ship and ex­ec­u­tive each spoke frankly.
Yes­ter­day, ex­ec­u­tive mem­ber Ger­ald De­bisette said the Prime Min­is­ter was very open with mem­bers and an­swered queries on why Le Hunte wasn’t ac­cept­ed.

He said, “We in the ex­ec­u­tive are per­fect­ly com­fort­able with it since we got the full ex­pla­na­tion. Be­fore, on­ly about five mem­bers had an idea. So we’re com­fort­able go­ing for­ward seek­ing oth­er nom­i­nees,’’

Oth­er mem­bers not­ed the PM said he’s just and fair, but acts af­ter full con­sid­er­a­tion of all facts.

De­bisette re­gret­ted that a few ex­ec­u­tive mem­bers were nott present at last Sat­ur­day’s meet­ing.

Big­ford, who’s staunch­ly sup­port­ed Le Hunte, con­firmed he didn’t at­tend. He con­ced­ed, “While I’d have liked Robert to be the can­di­date, we’ll have to move on and look for a (new) can­di­date).”

Ex­ec­u­tive mem­ber Isacc Knutt added: “We’ll get a can­di­date next week. Right now the con­stituen­cy’s is in a very good place, we’re see­ing eye-to-eye— unit­ed.”

I’ll as­sist can­di­date

wher­ev­er I can— Le Hunte

Le Hunte had at­tend­ed last Sat­ur­day’s screen­ing ex­er­cise at PNM’s South of­fice since he—as PNM vice chair­man—was part of the screen­ing team’s ex­am­i­na­tion of nom­i­nees for Na­pari­ma and Ma­yaro. He re­cused him­self for La Brea’s mat­ter. He’d said he re­mained PNM vice chair­man.

Yes­ter­day, asked his view on last Sat­ur­day’s out­come, Le Hunte said, “Based on my ex­pe­ri­ence with the PNM it’s not of­ten you see a con­stituen­cy, af­ter three tries, con­tin­u­ing to give ma­jor­i­ty sup­port to a can­di­date in spite of the per­son not be­ing favoured by the lead­er­ship. I think the con­stituen­cy’s now bat­tle weary. But I com­mend them high­ly for their con­tin­ued sup­port.“

“I en­tered pol­i­tics to serve, not hold of­fice. I con­tin­ue to be vice chair­man and will ex­e­cute that re­spon­si­bil­i­ty with the in­tegri­ty and pro­fes­sion­al I hold and I con­tin­ue to re­spect the sanc­ti­ty of Cab­i­net,’’ he said.

Asked if he will sup­port or as­sist the ex­pect­ed new can­di­date, Le Hunte added, “I’m still com­mit­ted to the peo­ple of La Brea- wher­ev­er I can as­sist I’ll do what­ev­er I can.“

La Brea sources said lead­ing con­tenders for nom­i­na­tion in­clud­ed Dr Ger­maine Bovell-Pitt and for­mer SWRHA head Kei­th Mc­Don­ald who were among the last batch.