Executive members of the People’s National Movement (PNM) Arima constituency are expressing concern about democracy within the party being under threat. That was the general sentiment expressed by members during a general meeting at the constituency office on Thursday night, according to the party vice chairman Dr Paula Mark.
The meeting, which was chaired by constituency chairman Cagney Casimire, was held to report to members about the February screening of the prospective candidates for the Arima seat in this year’s general election.
Mark said the meeting was somewhat emotional as members shared their views on the committee’s decision to reject Pennelope Beckles-Robinson, who was supported by 30 party groups. The committee instead chose Arima deputy mayor Anthony Garcia, who Mark said was supported by only three party groups.
She said the constituency felt “abused, used, battered” by the decision. She said many members said they were fearful of the party suffering the same fate as it did in 2010 and that it might lose the seat with Garcia as the candidate. She said the party’s leader Dr Keith Rowley “is on record as saying that he was committed to deepening the democratic process in the party but that was not happening based on the candidate chosen for the Arima seat.”
She said members also noted the inconsistency in the screening process as the same questions were not asked of all the three candidates for the Arima seat. Mark said she was at the screening at Balisier House and when Beckles-Robinson was being questioned it seemed liked it was the 2014 internal elections all over again. Beckles-Robinson contested against Rowley for the post of political leader at those elections but lost.
She noted that despite the widespread support for Beckles-Robinson, it was a member of Team Rowley who was chosen as the prospective candidate for the seat in 2015. Beckles-Robinson was not present during the meeting on Thursday which lasted for over two hours.
Responding to the report, the party’s general secretary Ashton Ford said under the party’s constitution as long as one party group nominated a candidate that person was free to be screened to represent the party. Responding to concerns about party democracy being under threat, Ford said the Arima constituency executive should “look within” before making such claims.
Ford said, “there were many dedicated, committed, hardworking people of Arima who wanted to contribute to the party in the constituency but they were being alienated by the current executive.”
He said there had never been any threat by any true PNM supporter in Arima to not vote or vote against the party in any general election before. Ford said he had received no official report of the meeting.