Gail Alexan­der

New PNM To­ba­go lead­er­ship in two months.

And PNM’s To­ba­go Coun­cil leader Tra­cy David­son-Ce­les­tine who won’t be con­test­ing PNM’s ex­ec­u­tive elec­tion on April 24, be­lieves oth­er PNM can­di­dates who were de­feat­ed in the re­cent To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly (THA) elec­tions should avoid con­test­ing to al­low PNM the best chance to move for­ward .

But de­feat­ed PNM can­di­date and for­mer THA chief sec­re­tary An­cil Den­nis told Guardian Me­dia yes­ter­day, “I will be con­test­ing the post of (To­ba­go) po­lit­i­cal leader.”

Both spoke to Guardian Me­dia as the To­ba­go Coun­cil an­nounced its ex­ec­u­tive elec­tion for April 24. This was agreed to at a coun­cil meet­ing on Wednes­day.

Calls for ex­ec­u­tive elec­tions arose last month when the coun­cil re­viewed the re­sults of the THA poll where 14 of PNM’s 15 can­di­dates were de­feat­ed by the Pro­gres­sive De­mo­c­ra­t­ic Pa­tri­ots team.

Some PN­MItes crit­i­cised David­son -Ce­les­tine’s lead­er­ship.

New ex­ec­u­tive elec­tions were agreed up­on. That in­cludes for po­lit­i­cal leader, term of which was orig­i­nal­ly up in 2024.

Nom­i­na­tion forms for the posts will be avail­able from Feb­ru­ary 24 at the PNM’s Scar­bor­ough of­fice.

In the coun­cil’s state­ment, David­son-Ce­les­tine said it is “an­oth­er ex­cit­ing pe­ri­od for the PNM.”

She wished all con­tes­tants the best.

Speak­ing to Guardian Me­dia sub­se­quent­ly, David­son-Ce­les­tine said she won’t be vy­ing for lead­er­ship .

Af­ter the THA elec­tion, she said she felt it nec­es­sary to stand down to al­low new lead­er­ship and new di­rec­tion to move the PNM for­ward to pre­pare for any up­com­ing elec­tion.

Former THA chief secretary Ancil Dennis

THA

She said, “I had op­tions af­ter the elec­tion– I could have re­signed but I thought it fit­ting to re­main and en­sure noth­ing fell down with the (ex­ec­u­tive elec­tion) process.”

“I’m will­ing to step aside and make way for fresh elec­tions and in my do­ing so, it’s be­ing echoed by the mem­ber­ship that there should al­so be oth­er new peo­ple with cred­i­bil­i­ty to take the par­ty for­ward and give it the best chance at polls ahead.”

“So any­one else of­fer­ing them­selves for po­si­tions or lead­er­ship should be new to the process and not taint­ed. I’m not about self-in­ter­est, we must look at the big­ger pic­ture and what’s in the na­tion­al in­ter­est.”

Den­nis, who lost the Buc­coo/Mt Pleas­ant seat by three votes, was firm yes­ter­day that he’s con­test­ing the lead­er­ship.

Soon af­ter the coun­cil’s Jan­u­ary meet­ing, Den­nis had said he was ready to take charge of the coun­cil if the par­ty so de­sired and was open to the job of re­build­ing it and mount­ing a THA elec­tion chal­lenge in four years. He’d said whether it’s lead­er­ship or not, he will play a role in the par­ty’s re­build­ing .

Asked yes­ter­day about the view that de­feat­ed can­di­dates may be un­able to take the par­ty for­ward prop­er­ly, Den­nis said, “So what if PNM had lost all 15 seats? It would still have re­quired a leader and some­body would have had to step up to the plate. All ex­ec­u­tive posts are open. Every­one’s free to con­test, whether de­feat­ed can­di­dates or brand new politi­cians. In the fi­nal analy­sis mem­bers will de­cide as it’s one- man- one-vote.”

“I’ll dis­close my plans ahead. As an ex­pe­ri­enced cam­paign­er for PNM over the last eight years and with a short stint as Chief Sec­re­tary, mem­bers of the par­ty and across the coun­try are aware of my ca­pa­bil­i­ties in­clud­ing lead­er­ship.”

There’s a lob­by among some for PNM’s THA Mi­nor­i­ty leader Kelvon Mor­ris to con­test the lead­er­ship.

The Dar­ryl Spring/Whim As­sem­bly­man was the on­ly suc­cess­ful PNM can­di­date. He didn’t re­ply to calls yes­ter­day.

De­feat­ed can­di­date Joel Jack didn’t re­ply but sources said the for­mer THA fi­nance sec­re­tary “might” con­sid­er con­test­ing.

Some cur­rent ex­ec­u­tive mem­bers are al­so ex­pect­ed to con­test.

The elec­tion in­cludes the chair­man­ship which was va­cant since Stan­ford Cal­len­dar re­signed last year.

Vice chair­man De­on Isaac couldn’t say if he’d con­test that or an­oth­er post. He said dead­line for sub­mis­sion of nom­i­na­tions will be giv­en short­ly.