Sto­ries by Gail Alexan­der

Se­nior Po­lit­i­cal Re­porter

Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment po­lit­i­cal leader Pen­ne­lope Beck­les last night called on par­ty mem­bers to unite af­ter a bruis­ing in­ter­nal elec­tion cam­paign in which her One PNM slate was in the lead.

That was the pro­jec­tion late last night at the Bal­isi­er House, Port-of-Spain head­quar­ters, where the elec­tion com­mit­tee was still busy count­ing votes.

How­ev­er, ahead of the con­fir­ma­tion of the re­sult, Beck­les took to Face­book with a state­ment call­ing for heal­ing in the par­ty.

“Tonight marks a piv­otal mo­ment for our move­ment as we forge for­ward, unit­ed in pur­pose. We await the elec­tion re­sults and the lead­er­ship that will guide us for­ward with vi­sion and re­silience. This cam­paign has ex­em­pli­fied the di­verse voic­es with­in our par­ty, each shar­ing their hopes for a brighter fu­ture,” Beck­les said.

“Now is the time to re­con­vene as One Peo­ple, to set aside in­di­vid­ual am­bi­tions and em­brace col­lec­tive strength. Our tri­umph lies in our uni­ty, for it is to­geth­er that we can trans­form chal­lenges in­to op­por­tu­ni­ty and forge a fu­ture root­ed in our shared val­ues.

“Over fifty mem­bers com­mit­ted them­selves whole­heart­ed­ly, demon­strat­ing our par­ty’s vi­tal­i­ty and de­sire for re­new­al.”

Beck­les ex­pressed grat­i­tude to all who par­tic­i­pat­ed in the elec­tion process.

“Your in­volve­ment sig­ni­fies that our move­ment is alive and de­ter­mined. As we move for­ward, I pledge to work close­ly with the new lead­er­ship to re­build, re­con­nect, and re­in­force the ideals that de­fine the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment,” she said.

“Let us stand unit­ed, res­olute, and in­spired to shape a fu­ture that re­flects our high­est as­pi­ra­tions. To­geth­er, we will re­build and re­new our great move­ment, con­fi­dent in the strength of our col­lec­tive pur­pose...”

Ac­cord­ing to Elec­tion Su­per­vi­so­ry Com­mit­tee chair­man Richard Wal­cott, pre­lim­i­nary re­sults up to 10.15 pm showed that the One PNM team was in the lead for the main ex­ec­u­tive posts.

He added, “Fig­ures are com­ing in from all over but slow­ly. What we have so far is that the One PNM slate is in the lead. But there is al­so a very tight race be­tween One PNM’s can­di­date for gen­er­al sec­re­tary, Fos­ter Cum­mings, and in­de­pen­dent can­di­date for that post Roger Boynes. We’re await­ing re­sults from Port-of-Spain, Ari­ma, Diego Mar­tin. Ari­ma reg­is­tered the high­est turnout—over 500 vot­ers.”

Wal­cott said fi­nal re­sults were ex­pect­ed to­day and would be re­leased lat­er.

“It seems it was a low turnout,” Wal­cott added.

Beck­les was elect­ed po­lit­i­cal leader un­op­posed at the June 2 nom­i­na­tion process. Fifty oth­er can­di­dates con­test­ed the oth­er 15 posts.

That in­volved the One PNM slate - with six in­cum­bents—con­test­ing 14 posts.

Al­so con­test­ing was the Peo­ple’s Cham­pi­ons slate of non-in­cum­bents, con­test­ing six posts led by at­tor­ney Farai Hove Ma­sai­sai. Among the 30 In­de­pen­dents was one in­cum­bent.

Beck­les and the new ex­ec­u­tive will be in­stalled at Sun­day’s PNM con­ven­tion at a venue be­ing fi­nalised. Beck­les will an­nounce her three new deputy lead­ers there. Names be­ing spec­u­lat­ed in­clude for­mer min­is­ters Colm Im­bert, Mustapha Ab­dul Hamid and Robert Le Hunte.

In­fight­ing up­sets can­di­date

In­de­pen­dent can­di­date Max­ine Richards, who con­test­ed the post of wel­fare of­fi­cer, al­so called for uni­ty.

“I’ve re­mained silent through­out the cam­paign­ing process. I was very dis­ap­point­ed to hear the com­ments made by some of the can­di­dates about in­de­pen­dent can­di­dates and for­mer lead­er­ship. This nev­er hap­pened be­fore. This is not how we speak about fel­low par­ty mem­bers,” Richards said.

“At the end of the day, we are one par­ty and we need to get back to that po­si­tion. I do hope, re­gard­less of the elec­tion’s out­come, that we can unite as a par­ty and work on re­build­ing our par­ty as we en­sure we get back in­to Gov­ern­ment in 2030.”

Peo­ple’s Cham­pi­ons can­di­date Josi­mar James, af­ter yes­ter­day’s vot­ing, added, “We are all one PNM.”

PC slate lodges com­plaint

For­mal com­plaints to the ESC on al­leged ir­reg­u­lar­i­ties were sent by Port-of-Spain May­or Chin­ua Al­leyne (can­di­date for chair­man) and Peo­ple’s Cham­pi­ons’ St Clair O’Neil (can­di­date for labour of­fi­cer).

O’Neil said they re­ceived re­ports from its scru­ti­neers and oth­er in­de­pen­dent can­di­dates and their scru­ti­neers, of per­sons be­ing al­lowed to vote with­out their names ap­pear­ing on the of­fi­cial vot­ers’ list.

“We have not been pro­vid­ed with the pro­ce­dure for this high­ly ir­reg­u­lar prac­tice, nor have we been in­formed who holds the ‘mys­te­ri­ous au­thor­i­ty at Bal­isi­er House’ to au­tho­rise such votes for per­sons not on the list by sim­ply a call to Bal­isi­er House where some­one gives the nod.”

He said the PC felt that based on nu­mer­ous com­plaints there were se­vere ir­reg­u­lar­i­ties, “par­tic­u­lar­ly in the con­stituen­cies of La Hor­quet­ta and St Ann’s East con­cern­ing the el­i­gi­bil­i­ty and process by which in­di­vid­u­als are be­ing per­mit­ted to cast votes with­out be­ing prop­er­ly list­ed as mem­bers.”

The PC called on the ESC to probe the com­plaints.

The PC said it ex­pects a re­sponse on or be­fore noon to­day (Mon), “fail­ing which, all al­ter­na­tive and law­ful le­gal pro­ceed­ings will have to be ex­plored with­out fur­ther no­tice to you.”