By Alicia Chamely
The People’s National Movement (PNM) internal elections have been set for Sunday June 29.
The announcement came on Friday evening from PNM Public Relations Officer Faris Al-Rawi at a media briefing held after a special general council meeting at Balisier House.
Al-Rawi said, “We resolved that the general council summon a special convention to be held on Sunday June 29th for the specific purpose of election of all of the officers of the movement.”
He said all 16 officer posts were up for election, these included the political leader, chairman, vice chairman, lady vice chairman, general secretary and treasurer, among all others.
Al-Rawi said current office holders will remain in office until their successors are chosen.
Regarding the taking of the ballots for the election he said, “We do the ballot the weekend before the convention, the result of the ballot is then to the convention and at the convention the election is perfected, so we are in keeping with the constitution of our People’s National Movement.”
He said ballots will be taken in all 41 constituencies and that all registered members of the PNM, regardless of their financial standings, were eligible to vote.
Al-Rawi said, in reference to the choosing of a political leader, “Some of the discussion (within the meeting) involved the truthful observation that the leader of a political leader is an essential office and it is essential for us to equip, in this case it is my personal ambition, to equip the Leader of the Opposition as the political leader because you can’t be confined to only speaking in that capacity as leader of the Opposition and in parliament you want to have the ability to speak as the leader of the People’s National Movement.”
He said, “There is a lot to be done in the party in seeking to encourage persons who stayed home to come back to look at us in a different way.”
The votes will be held in line with the PNM constitution, one man one vote.
