Gail Alexan­der

Those who didn’t win in yes­ter­day’s Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment’s (PNM’s) in­ter­nal elec­tions should “come again”.

This was the ad­vice ex­tend­ed by out­go­ing PNM chair­man, Fi­nance Min­is­ter Colm Im­bert when he ad­dressed del­e­gates and ob­servers at yes­ter­day’s morn­ing seg­ment of the PNM’s 50th con­ven­tion at the Grand Stand, Queen’s Park Sa­van­nah in Port-of-Spain.

The re­sults will be an­nounced to­day, Im­bert told the con­ven­tion.

The third and fi­nal day of vot­ing in the PNM’s in­ter­nal elec­tion took place from 8 am to 1 pm.

Speak­ing in the morn­ing ahead of the re­sults, Im­bert not­ed the num­ber of can­di­dates in the elec­tion. He said it was quite a keen­ly con­test­ed one.

“So it should be,” he said.

Im­bert said some can­di­dates would win and some would lose. To those who win, he ex­tend­ed best wish­es and hearti­est con­grat­u­la­tions. To those who lose, “I’d say come again.”

Im­bert not­ed that Row­ley first con­test­ed the PNM’s lead­er­ship in 1996 but be­came the PNM leader in 2010, 14 years lat­er. Im­bert gave that as an ex­am­ple of per­se­ver­ance, per­sis­tence and fo­cus.

Im­bert al­so said that every day one saw and heard “all sorts of things” be­ing thrown at “us mem­bers of the PNM”.

“Peo­ple don’t pelt a tree with green man­goes - and that’s the rea­son,” he said.

Im­bert said mem­bers should nev­er be afraid to an­swer the PNM’s crit­ics.

“Si­lence is not an op­tion,” he added.

He not­ed it was an op­tion long ago but not in these times of so­cial me­dia, in­clud­ing Face­book, Tik­Tok and In­sta­gram.

Im­bert who said the PNM won the 2015 elec­tion “against all odds”, not­ed the op­er­a­tion by leader Dr Kei­th Row­ley dur­ing the 2010- 2015 pe­ri­od when the PNM cre­at­ed its poli­cies and as­sem­bled its team.

He ar­gued that was what led to the 2015 vic­to­ry and lat­er again in 2020.

“That’s one of the main rea­sons why they’re so jeal­ous as it’s not easy to be in Op­po­si­tion for 10 years...or 15 or 20 years for that mat­ter.”

Im­bert re­count­ed his his­to­ry with the PNM when he joined the par­ty in 1986 when the PNM had three seats to the Na­tion­al Al­liance for Re­con­struc­tion’s (NAR’s) 33. He not­ed the PNM came back from that to win in 1991 un­der late leader Patrick Man­ning.

“Those were ex­cit­ing times,” he said adding he was in his 30s.

Im­bert said the PNM’s 1995 loss didn’t daunt them, not­ing that they fought back and re­turned again in oth­er elec­tions in­clud­ing up to 2007, and af­ter the PNM’s 2010 de­feat, re­turned in 2015.

“This is a demon­stra­tion of the in­domitable re­silient spir­it of the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment - they can’t beat us!”