Come next April, the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) will be­gin screen­ing for all 41 can­di­dates for the up­com­ing 2020 gen­er­al elec­tion.

This was re­vealed on Wednes­day by the par­ty’s po­lit­i­cal leader and Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley at a po­lit­i­cal meet­ing in Ch­agua­nas which was at­tend­ed by par­ty sup­port­ers, Fi­nance Min­is­ter Colm Im­bert, Plan­ning and De­vel­op­ment Min­is­ter Camille Robin­son-Reg­is and out­go­ing chair­man of the par­ty Franklin Khan.

“You see the next gen­er­al elec­tion we will en­sure that we work to­wards in­creas­ing our ma­jor­i­ty.”

“In 2019, screen­ing be­gins. So as you elect the ex­ec­u­tive now, we go to the con­ven­tion at the end of No­vem­ber and then we will take a lit­tle break un­til East­er. And as soon as you fin­ish the East­er va­ca­tion, I am putting this par­ty on no­tice that screen­ings for the next gen­er­al elec­tions be­gins im­me­di­ate­ly af­ter that,” Row­ley an­nounced to ju­bi­lant par­ty faith­ful.

The first con­stituen­cy to be screened will be Ch­agua­nas East, Row­ley said.

Lead­ing up to the 2015 gen­er­al elec­tion, Row­ley said the Ch­agua­nas East con­stituen­cy gave them­selves one month with a can­di­date, which was in­suf­fi­cient time for cam­paign­ing and to pre­pare the can­di­date to con­test the polls.

“And you lost that seat by 800 votes. When you lose by 800 votes it means that if 400 peo­ple had vot­ed dif­fer­ent­ly from that block of 800 we would have won that seat.”

Row­ley said an­oth­er con­stituen­cy, whose name he did not call, did worse than Ch­agua­nas East, as they failed to co­op­er­ate with the par­ty’s ex­ec­u­tive and lead­er­ship.

“You want to lead your­self. Any horse that leads it­self over a cliff breaks its own neck. You have to elect a prop­er ex­ec­u­tive, a prop­er lead­er­ship and then there is a role for lead­er­ship and there is a role for fol­low­er­ship. And you have to know when to lead and know when to fol­low.”

The PM said there was a point of view to spring a sur­prise can­di­date on the op­pos­ing sides when the elec­tion bell is rung.

“You come right down to elec­tion and you hold back a sur­prise can­di­date in your back pock­et and then you spring that sur­prise can­di­date on them and that sur­prise takes you to the polls.”

Hav­ing done that on many oc­ca­sions, Row­ley said the sur­prise can­di­dates worked well and when they get close to the polls they nev­er “win the race.”

Row­ley promised that the PNM will not “rest on their lau­rels” for the 2019, 2020 Lo­cal and gen­er­al elec­tions and the 2021 To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly elec­tions.

He said the rea­son why screen­ing will take place ear­li­er than ex­pect­ed was to give all its can­di­dates enough time to cam­paign and for the elec­torate to know them in­side out.