Akash Sama­roo

Se­nior Re­porter

akash.sama­roo@cnc3.co.tt

Leader of Gov­ern­ment Busi­ness Camille Robin­son-Reg­is is deny­ing there is any fric­tion or an­i­mos­i­ty with­in the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM), de­spite the fact that al­most half of its Mem­bers of Par­lia­ment did not sup­port Stu­art Young to suc­ceed Dr Kei­th Row­ley as Prime Min­is­ter.

Guardian Me­dia re­ceived con­fir­ma­tion yes­ter­day that the count was nine votes for Beck­les and 11 for Young at the end of the par­ty’s two-day re­treat at the Mag­dale­na Grand Beach and Golf Re­sort on Mon­day.

While leav­ing the re­sort yes­ter­day, Robin­son-Reg­is said there were no is­sues with the vot­ing process and as far as she was aware, all was well with­in their ranks.

“I have not heard of any an­i­mos­i­ty, it was fair, we did say what the vote was, and it shows we have peo­ple in our ranks who could lead, if the Prime Min­is­ter re­signs as he said. But the ma­jor­i­ty, as far as I re­call, 11 con­tin­ues to be more than 9, and the ma­jor­i­ty reigned,” she said.

While Beck­les did not an­swer calls or mes­sages yes­ter­day, Robin­son-Reg­is said the Ari­ma MP gave a speech on Mon­day fol­low­ing the process.

“She is fine. I wouldn’t be able to say (if she is dis­ap­point­ed) but she did make a speech af­ter and she put her full sup­port be­hind Min­is­ter Young,” Robin­son-Reg­is claimed.

Mean­while, a list pur­port­ing to de­tail how each MP vot­ed cir­cu­lat­ed wide­ly on so­cial me­dia.

Un­der “Team Pen­ny” the names were: Pen­ne­lope Beck­les, Fos­ter Cum­mings, Mar­vin Gon­za­les, Kennedy Richards Jr, Faris Al-Rawi, Dr Nyan Gads­by-Dol­ly, Ter­rence Deyals­ingh, Sham­fa Cud­joe and Roger Mon­roe.

Un­der “Team Stu­art,” the names were: Camille Robin­son-Reg­is, Symon De No­bri­ga, Colm Im­bert, Stephen Mc­Clashie, Adri­an Leonce, Fitzger­ald Hinds, Stu­art Young, Kei­th Scot­land, Bri­an Man­ning, Ayan­na Web­ster Roy and Es­mond Forde.

Adding fu­el to ru­mours of the list’s ve­rac­i­ty was a mo­ment fol­low­ing day one of the PNM’s Par­lia­men­tary Re­treat where a group of MPs, in­clud­ing Beck­les, hud­dled to­geth­er for over ten min­utes in con­ver­sa­tion as their col­leagues left the meet­ing place at To­ba­go Plan­ta­tions. In that hud­dle was Cum­mings, Al-Rawi, Gads­by-Dol­ly, Mon­roe, Deyals­ingh, Richards Jr, Gon­za­les, Cud­joe and Beck­les.

How­ev­er, Prime Min­is­ter Row­ley dis­missed the ac­cu­ra­cy of the list. When asked by Guardian Me­dia if the list was ac­cu­rate, Dr Kei­th Row­ley replied, “No!”

Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Min­is­ter Symon de No­bri­ga al­so de­nied its au­then­tic­i­ty and sought to dis­miss it as mis­chief.

“I’ve seen this cir­cu­lat­ing and I’m not sur­prised that some­one or some group of peo­ple is try­ing to cre­ate the ap­pear­ance of a lack of uni­ty. There was a de­ci­sion tak­en at our re­treat and that de­ci­sion was clear­ly ar­tic­u­lat­ed by the Prime Min­is­ter. There is on­ly one team and that is team PNM. The Par­lia­men­tary Cau­cus has se­lect­ed Min­is­ter Young and no amount of mis­chief by those who cre­at­ed that list to cir­cu­late can change that fact,” he re­spond­ed.

Mean­while, MP Fos­ter Cum­mings said he did not of­fer him­self for con­sid­er­a­tion to be­come prime min­is­ter.

“My fo­cus at this time is on re­tain­ing the La Hor­quet­ta/Tal­paro seat for the PNM in the up­com­ing gen­er­al elec­tion,” he told Guardian Me­dia.

Asked if he has his eye on be­com­ing po­lit­i­cal leader, Cum­mings said, “You can ask me that ques­tion when it is be­fore us, and you will get a re­sponse.”

Sit­u­a­tion not un­prece­dent­ed

With re­spect to the par­ty’s lead­er­ship, Robin­son-Reg­is said it seems for­mer PNM par­lia­men­tar­i­ans have for­got­ten their his­to­ry.

“When George Cham­bers, af­ter the death of Prime Min­is­ter Dr Er­ic Williams, he be­came the prime min­is­ter, but he was not im­me­di­ate­ly the leader of the PNM. And I think peo­ple have to re­mem­ber their his­to­ry. That is the his­to­ry of the PNM. When the same Dr Row­ley be­came the leader of the Op­po­si­tion, he was not the leader of the PNM at that time. Ad­di­tion­al­ly, it took a while be­fore he was made leader of the PNM, same with George Cham­bers. So we have to know our his­to­ry and re­mem­ber our his­to­ry,” she said.

“So I don’t know why peo­ple are pre­tend­ing that this is an un­prece­dent­ed sit­u­a­tion.”

Se­nior par­ty mem­ber Jen­nifer Bap­tiste-Primus, a for­mer Labour Min­is­ter un­der the PNM, has ar­gued that the par­ty’s Gen­er­al Coun­cil must have the fi­nal say on Young as prime min­is­ter and that Row­ley should step down and deal with the con­sti­tu­tion­al process to en­sure the PNM has a po­lit­i­cal leader to take the par­ty in­to the 2025 polls.

Robin­son-Reg­is said it is in­vid­i­ous for peo­ple to be­lieve the par­ty is lead­er­less, as Dr Row­ley is still at the helm of the PNM.

“And he con­tin­ues to be the leader of the PNM and un­til he is no longer the leader, we pledge our sup­port to the leader of the PNM and that is Kei­th Row­ley and as I said, it is not un­prece­dent­ed,” she ar­gued.

Yes­ter­day, the PNM an­nounced that its month­ly meet­ing of the Gen­er­al Coun­cil will take place on Sat­ur­day 11 at Bal­isi­er House from 4 pm.