KAY-MARIE FLETCH­ER

Se­nior Re­porter

kay-marie.fletch­er@guardian.co.tt

Al­though Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) gen­er­al sec­re­tary Fos­ter Cum­mings is un­moved by calls for his res­ig­na­tion fol­low­ing the par­ty’s April 28 Gen­er­al Elec­tion de­feat, there are mixed views on whether he should be in the par­ty’s ex­ec­u­tive.

For­mer PNM gen­er­al sec­re­tary Ash­ton Ford says Cum­mings’ re­fusal to re­sign isn’t in keep­ing with the par­ty’s cus­toms.

Speak­ing to Guardian Me­dia on Fri­day, a day af­ter an en­ti­ty call­ing it­self the Change­mak­ers called for Cum­mings’ res­ig­na­tion, Ford said when the par­ty lost elec­tions in the past, it was cus­tom­ary for all ex­ec­u­tive mem­bers to re­sign. He said in 2010 and in 1986, the sec­re­taries re­signed on prin­ci­ple.

Ford said, “In 2010 when we lost the elec­tions to the same UNC, the chair­man of the par­ty Con­rad Enill re­signed. He wasn’t a mem­ber of par­lia­ment. Mar­tin Joseph re­signed, he was gen­er­al sec­re­tary and (Patrick) Man­ning re­signed... I have no prob­lem with Fos­ter but as a mat­ter of prin­ci­ple, he should step down.”

Fol­low­ing the April 28 de­feat, PNM chair­man Stu­art Young and cam­paign man­ag­er Ro­han Sinanan re­signed. For­mer prime min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley al­so re­signed as po­lit­i­cal leader, say­ing he took re­spon­si­bil­i­ty for the elec­tion de­feat. Row­ley then re­voked the ap­point­ments of Dr Nyan Gads­by-Dol­ly and Colm Im­bert as deputy lead­ers. How­ev­er, they were se­lect­ed as chair­man and deputy chair­man dur­ing a spe­cial Gen­er­al Coun­cil meet­ing last week.

Re­spond­ing to calls for his res­ig­na­tion from oth­ers, in­clud­ing the Gamechang­ers, last week, Cum­mings said he could not be blamed for the elec­tion de­feat, as he was not con­sult­ed on nor did he ap­prove of the strat­e­gy that led to the PNM’s loss.

Mean­while, PNM found­ing mem­ber Fer­die Fer­reira said he be­lieves Cum­mings may not be en­tire­ly ly­ing when he says he was not part of the cam­paign’s de­ci­sion-mak­ing, as Dr Row­ley and Young may have had the fi­nal say.

He be­lieves the po­si­tion of gen­er­al sec­re­tary is an im­por­tant one and a mem­ber of par­lia­ment should not have held it.

Fer­reira said, “The gen­er­al sec­re­tary is the gen­er­al man­ag­er of the par­ty. He is the per­son re­spon­si­ble for en­sur­ing that the par­ty’s elec­tion ma­chin­ery is on a prop­er­ly lu­bri­cat­ed and on good foot­ing but it may be part­ly true. The prob­lem start­ed with Row­ley hold­ing on to po­lit­i­cal leader po­si­tion and pass­ing the prime min­is­ter­ship, so he has Stu­art on a leash.”

Fer­reira al­so be­lieves the cur­rent is­sues with­in the par­ty may be linked to a lack of prop­er lead­er­ship as there’s no in­ter­im po­lit­i­cal leader. He said if the Gen­er­al Coun­cil be­lieves Beck­les is good enough to be Op­po­si­tion Leader, she should al­so be in­ter­im leader.

And though Cum­mings pre­vi­ous­ly said the par­ty’s con­sti­tu­tion does not al­low for an in­ter­im leader, Fer­reira said Dr Row­ley was in­ter­im leader af­ter the par­ty’s elec­tion loss in 2010 un­til a con­ven­tion was held in 2011.

How­ev­er, for­mer ex­ec­u­tive mem­ber Robert Le Hunte rub­bished calls for Cum­mings to re­sign. 
He said Cum­mings is a long-stand­ing mem­ber and at this point, the par­ty needs good lead­er­ship. 

“I have not­ed the call for him to re­sign. How­ev­er, if Cum­mings had re­signed as part of the lead­er­ship to­geth­er with Mrs Camille Robin­son-Reg­is, who was al­so part of the lead­er­ship at that time, we would have end­ed up with just one per­son be­ing there and I think it is im­por­tant that the par­ty can func­tion and move for­ward,” he out­lined. 

Gen­er­al Coun­cil mem­ber Jen­nifer Bap­tiste-Primus al­so ques­tioned why Cum­mings should re­sign. 
She said Row­ley is to blame for the loss and Cum­mings should not be made a scape­goat. 

She said the par­ty should now fo­cus on set­ting a date for the in­ter­nal elec­tions and the con­ven­tion.