Geisha Kow­lessar-Alon­zo

Se­nior Re­porter

geisha.kow­lessar@guardian.co.tt

Op­po­si­tion Leader Pen­ne­lope Beck­les has been en­dorsed by her col­leagues for the post of Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) po­lit­i­cal leader and so far she is the on­ly can­di­date vy­ing for the po­si­tion.

If she suc­ceeds in her bid, she will make his­to­ry by be­com­ing the first woman to head the 69-year-old po­lit­i­cal par­ty.

PNM PRO Faris Al-Rawi said Beck­les sig­nalled her in­ten­tion to seek the po­si­tion when the par­ty holds its elec­tion con­ven­tion on June 29.

At a spe­cial ses­sion of the par­ty’s gen­er­al coun­cil at Bal­isi­er House on Fri­day to dis­cuss a date for the spe­cial elec­tion con­ven­tion, Al-Rawi said mem­bers felt there should be uni­ty of the of­fices of po­lit­i­cal leader and Op­po­si­tion Leader.

“The anom­aly is the fact that the Op­po­si­tion Leader doesn’t sit in lead­er­ship of the par­ty and that is there­fore some­thing we’re very con­cerned to put right as quick­ly as pos­si­ble,” he said.

“The Op­po­si­tion Leader al­so ac­knowl­edged that this elec­tion for po­lit­i­cal leader is a very open de­mo­c­ra­t­ic process and all con­tenders are wel­come.”

Key mem­bers of the par­ty have al­ready ex­pressed sup­port for Beck­les in her bid to be­come PNM’s po­lit­i­cal leader.

Among them is Gen­er­al Sec­re­tary Fos­ter Cum­mings.

“Pen­ne­lope Beck­les MP and Leader of the Op­po­si­tion is the best per­son to lead the PNM at this time and I will be throw­ing my full sup­port be­hind her. Right leader, right time,” he said.

Cum­mings, the for­mer La Hor­quet­ta/Tal­paro MP, was de­feat­ed by Phillip Watts who had served as the chair­man of the PNM’s con­stituen­cy ex­ec­u­tive in that con­stituen­cy be­fore join­ing the UNC.

Watts was re­cent­ly ap­point­ed Min­is­ter of Sport and Youth Af­fairs.

Bri­an Man­ning, son of for­mer PNM po­lit­i­cal leader and prime min­is­ter Patrick Man­ning, has al­so thrown his sup­port be­hind Beck­les.

Asked yes­ter­day if he would be con­test­ing the po­lit­i­cal leader po­si­tion Man­ning, the MP for San Fer­nan­do East, the seat once held by his late fa­ther, said: “Not at all. Pen­ny has my full sup­port and en­dorse­ment. She has found favour with the mem­ber­ship of the par­ty.

“If there is one les­son we should have learned by now it is that we, as a par­ty, should lis­ten to the peo­ple.”

Asked whether he in­tends to seek any po­si­tion on the par­ty’s ex­ec­u­tive, Man­ning said: “I am leav­ing my op­tions open and lis­ten­ing to the voice of the peo­ple.”

Arou­ca/Lopinot MP Mar­vin Gon­za­les said he in­tends to speak to Beck­les to de­ter­mine where he may be best able to serve in the par­ty.

“Hon­est­ly, I haven’t giv­en con­sid­er­a­tion for any po­si­tion at this time. I will speak to the Leader of the Op­po­si­tion to in­quire where she thinks I will be most suit­able in the re­build­ing process,” he said.

Calls and mes­sages to for­mer prime min­is­ter Stu­art Young went unan­swered yes­ter­day.

This is not Beck­les’ first bid to be­come PNM po­lit­i­cal leader. In 2014, she lost to Dr Kei­th Row­ley in the par­ty’s in­ter­nal elec­tions. Row­ley re­ceived 18,070 votes com­pared to her 1,314.

The fol­low­ing year, she failed in her bid to be the PNM’s can­di­date for Ari­ma in the gen­er­al elec­tion.

She was lat­er ap­point­ed T&T’s Per­ma­nent Rep­re­sen­ta­tive to the UN in Au­gust 2016, then was ap­point­ed Min­is­ter of Plan­ning and De­vel­op­ment in March 2022 fol­low­ing a Cab­i­net reshuf­fle.

Last Jan­u­ary, Beck­les lost out to Young by a mar­gin of 11 to nine to re­place Row­ley when he re­tired in March.

Fol­low­ing the PNM’s de­feat in the April 28 gen­er­al elec­tion, Beck­les was of­fi­cial­ly sworn in as Op­po­si­tion Leader on May 6. This fol­lowed a spe­cial gen­er­al coun­cil meet­ing on April 30 where it was unan­i­mous­ly agreed that she “should lead the PNM charge in the Par­lia­ment.”

Beck­les, 63, who served as the Leader of Op­po­si­tion Busi­ness in the Sen­ate be­tween June 2010 and De­cem­ber 2013, first en­tered Par­lia­ment in 1995 as a mem­ber of the Sen­ate when the PNM was in Op­po­si­tion.

She first served as Ari­ma MP from 2000 and 2010 and has held var­i­ous min­is­te­r­i­al port­fo­lios, in­clud­ing So­cial De­vel­op­ment, Cul­ture and Tourism, Pub­lic Util­i­ties and the En­vi­ron­ment.