KAY-MARIE FLETCH­ER

and SHAL­IZA HAS­SANALI

The Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) will choose a new Op­po­si­tion Leader to­day.

Un­like what took place in Jan­u­ary, its po­lit­i­cal leader will not have the fi­nal say on who will lead the par­ty go­ing for­ward.

In­stead, the Gen­er­al Coun­cil— made up of well over 100 mem­bers —will have a one-man-one-vote process to de­cide on the Op­po­si­tion Leader.

It comes af­ter the PNM was top­pled by Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) in Mon­day’s Gen­er­al Elec­tion.

How­ev­er, some mem­bers of PNM’s Gen­er­al Coun­cil be­lieve be­fore an Op­po­si­tion Leader is cho­sen, Dr Kei­th Row­ley must go as po­lit­i­cal leader.

Speak­ing to Guardian Me­dia via tele­phone, for­mer gov­ern­ment min­is­ter Jen­nifer Bap­tiste-Primus said, “There is a Gen­er­al Coun­cil meet­ing to­mor­row (to­day) and there­fore the Gen­er­al Coun­cil would take the nec­es­sary de­ci­sions, not no po­lit­i­cal leader, es­pe­cial­ly the cur­rent po­lit­i­cal leader. He needs to re­sign and go. He has to re­sign and go and play golf, spend time with his fam­i­ly as he said and al­low the gen­er­al coun­cil, al­low the par­ty to en­gage in a dis­cus­sion, in a dis­course to de­ter­mine who will be our Op­po­si­tion Leader in Par­lia­ment. That is the first thing.”

But when asked how he feels about the back­lash and calls for his res­ig­na­tion, an un­fazed Row­ley said, “It comes with the ter­ri­to­ry.”

With Row­ley out and Stu­art Young’s chances look­ing grim based on feed­back from some PNM stal­warts, it’s down to the Mem­bers of Par­lia­ment-elect.

Based on the Elec­tions and Bound­aries Com­mis­sion (EBC) pre­lim­i­nary re­sults, the PNM on­ly won 13 seats.

The 13 MPs el­i­gi­ble to be Op­po­si­tion Leader in­clude Stu­art Young, Pen­ne­lope Beck­les-Robin­son, Symon de No­bri­ga, Colm Im­bert, Chris­t­ian Birch­wood, Ka­reem Mar­celle, Mar­vin Gon­za­les, Hans des Vi­gnes, Bri­an Man­ning, Dr Nyan Gads­by-Dol­ly, Camille Robin­son-Reg­is, Kei­th Scot­land and Do­minic Ro­main.

When Guardian Me­dia spoke to Man­ning, he said he’s ready to serve but it’s up to the Gen­er­al Coun­cil.

Man­ning said, “I’m al­ways ready to serve the peo­ple of Trinidad and To­ba­go and the good mem­bers of the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment will de­cide who will be their ex­ec­u­tive mem­bers and lead­ers go­ing for­ward. Now is a time for in­tro­spec­tion for us to re­al­ly lis­ten to what the elec­torate has said and been say­ing and for us to re­con­sid­er the way we do things in the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment. We have to be­come a lot more sen­si­tive.”

Asked if it was the wish of his late fa­ther, for­mer prime min­is­ter Patrick Man­ning, for him to fol­low in his foot­steps and take over the PNM one day, he said no.

Ef­forts to con­tact Young, Beck­les-Robin­son, Gads­by-Dol­ly, Gon­za­les, Im­bert and de No­bri­ga, were fu­tile yes­ter­day.

Bap­tiste-Primus added, “As a woman who has smashed many glass ceil­ings in my life, I would be de­light­ed if a fe­male is to be our new Op­po­si­tion Leader.”

‘A clear mes­sage’

Mean­while, the PNM’s for­mer vice chair­man, Robert Le Hunte, called for both Young and Row­ley to go.

“Let the par­ty breathe, Row­ley and Stu­art. Pack your bags and go!” Le Hunte said yes­ter­day.

Once viewed as a sym­bol of strength and struc­ture, Le Hunte said, the PNM be­came as­so­ci­at­ed with ar­ro­gance and a dis­con­nec­tion from the re­al­i­ties faced by every­day peo­ple.

“Af­ter a decade of in­sen­si­tiv­i­ty and bro­ken promis­es, their loy­al base fi­nal­ly sent a clear mes­sage. They chose to vote for the UNC or not vote at all.

“Young’s as­cen­sion to par­ty lead­er­ship was marred by ques­tion­able cir­cum­stances, as Row­ley uni­lat­er­al­ly chose him as his suc­ces­sor rather than al­low a de­mo­c­ra­t­ic in­ter­nal lead­er­ship race,” he claimed.

For­mer Port-of-Spain may­or and PNM mem­ber Louis Lee Sing claimed the par­ty’s hi­er­ar­chy was liv­ing far from re­al­i­ty and did not be­lieve this would have been such a painful out­come.

Lee Sing, who has been a mem­ber of the PNM since the age of 14, said what played out on Mon­day was iden­ti­cal to the 2010 gen­er­al elec­tion, where the PNM was beat­en by the Peo­ple’s Part­ner­ship.

He called for good sense to pre­vail in se­lect­ing the Op­po­si­tion Leader.

“On the ev­i­dence, that per­son can­not and must not be Stu­art Young.”

Lee Sing said he an­tic­i­pat­ed that Beck­les-Robin­son, who the PNM “side­stepped and ma­noeu­vred around,” would emerge as Op­po­si­tion Leader.

“I think Pen­ny Beck­les has been re­hears­ing, prac­tis­ing, study­ing, con­tem­plat­ing this po­si­tion for quite some time.”

He al­so hoped the mem­ber­ship could tell Row­ley that he had brought enough dark­ness to their lives and chase him out. 

“I think the PNM is go­ing to run Dr Row­ley out of Bal­isi­er House, whether we want to ac­cept it or not.”