Penny’s moment to shine at PNM Convention

Gail Alexan­der

Se­nior Po­lit­i­cal Re­porter

The di­rec­tion of the de­feat­ed Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) will be in fo­cus at to­day’s spe­cial con­ven­tion, when po­lit­i­cal leader-elect Pen­ne­lope Beck­les, the par­ty’s first fe­male leader, is in­stalled in that post at City Hall, Port-of-Spain.

This, as the PNM pre­pares for an­oth­er elec­tion—To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly polls—be­tween De­cem­ber and March 2026. To­ba­go PNM can­di­dates are ex­pect­ed to be ready by the end of Ju­ly.

To­day’s spe­cial con­ven­tion, which starts at 1.30 pm, will al­so in­stall the new ex­ec­u­tive elect­ed last Sun­day. The elec­tion was won by the One PNM (OP) team which Beck­les en­dorsed. It in­cludes in­cum­bents Fos­ter Cum­mings (gen­er­al sec­re­tary) and Faris Al-Rawi (PRO), plus sev­er­al new­com­er of­fi­cials.

Beck­les was elect­ed un­op­posed as po­lit­i­cal leader when elec­tion nom­i­na­tions closed on June 2. She will lead the PNM for four years—un­til 2029, just be­fore the 2030 gen­er­al elec­tion—along with four oth­er in­com­ing lead­er­ship of­fi­cials: Mar­vin Gon­za­les (chair­man), Dr Amery Browne (vice chair­man), Dr Nyan Gads­by-Dol­ly (la­dy vice chair­man) and Cum­mings.

Of­fi­cials who won the oth­er 11 po­si­tions will serve for two years un­til 2027. The OP slate con­test­ed and won 14 po­si­tions. In­cum­bent wel­fare of­fi­cer Max­ine Richards, who con­test­ed that post in­de­pen­dent­ly, re­tained it.

Ad­dress­ing the his­toric mo­ment yes­ter­day, Beck­les said, “It is my hope that this is the be­gin­ning of a re­newed sense of con­fi­dence that the peo­ple of Trinidad and To­ba­go will place in our abil­i­ty to lead. As po­lit­i­cal leader, I main­tain that it will not be busi­ness as usu­al. The par­ty’s lead­er­ship will de­mand ac­count­abil­i­ty from all of­fi­cers of the Move­ment ... We will al­so strength­en work­ing re­la­tion­ships with the To­ba­go Coun­cil. Mov­ing for­ward, we will pro­mote uni­ty, trans­paren­cy, and tan­gi­ble so­lu­tions.”

She said the par­ty will work tire­less­ly to re­build pub­lic trust, fos­ter eco­nom­ic op­por­tu­ni­ty and el­e­vate the voic­es of women, young peo­ple, and all cit­i­zens.

“We will make Bal­isi­er House a safe po­lit­i­cal home where our mem­bers, sup­port­ers and cit­i­zens can find a space where their ideas for our par­ty and coun­try can be de­vel­oped and brought to life,” she said.

“My lead­er­ship will be marked by in­tegri­ty, ac­count­abil­i­ty and an un­wa­ver­ing ded­i­ca­tion to the well‑be­ing of every Trinida­di­an and To­bag­on­ian. That is the PNM way.”

She said she looks for­ward to con­tin­u­ing to en­gage with com­mu­ni­ties across the coun­try, lis­ten­ing to con­cerns, and work­ing col­lab­o­ra­tive­ly to build a more pros­per­ous, in­clu­sive, and fair T&T.

Beck­les, 63, the PNM’s fifth leader, is al­so its first leader who is an at­tor­ney. For­mer leader Dr Kei­th Row­ley, who re­signed from that post fol­low­ing the Gen­er­al Elec­tion de­feat, was a ge­ol­o­gist. So, too, was late prime min­is­ter Patrick Man­ning. Late founder Dr Er­ic Williams was an his­to­ri­an and George Cham­bers an ac­coun­tant.

Beck­les, in pol­i­tics since 1995—en­ter­ing Par­lia­ment as an Op­po­si­tion Sen­a­tor—was al­so the first woman elect­ed deputy House Speak­er in 2007.

Beck­les is lead­ing the PNM when its MP team is half the size of the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress’ 26 MPs, the par­ty has new­com­ers in both Hous­es of Par­lia­ment and the Gov­ern­ment has con­sis­tent­ly at­tacked the PNM since Par­lia­ment be­gan—in­clud­ing House Leader Bar­ry Padarath lam­bast­ing Beck­les’ lead­er­ship last Mon­day.

Mem­bers spec­u­late that deputy lead­ers be­ing ap­point­ed to­day by Beck­les may in­clude for­mer deputy leader Colm Im­bert (who was ap­point­ed by Row­ley and whose ap­point­ment was re­voked by Row­ley), for­mer min­is­ter Mustapha Ab­dul Hamid or ex-min­is­ter Robert Le Hunte.

For­mer gen­er­al sec­re­tary Ash­ton Ford, who will at­tend the con­ven­tion, said, “I wish them the best—they’re go­ing to need it. Min­is­ter Roodal Mooni­lal said the so-called ‘PNM cul­ture of se­cre­cy is over’, yet two min­is­ters last Fri­day re­fused to an­swer the PNM’s ques­tions and ex­plain the fir­ing of the Cen­tral Bank gov­er­nor and WASA board mem­bers. This is just an in­di­ca­tion of how much work the PNM has to do. How­ev­er, I was pleased with PNM’s han­dling of the de­bate on the Prime Min­is­ter’s pen­sion bill.”