Imbert: No one interested to contest PNM election

PEOPLE wishing to contest positions on the People’s National Movement’s (PNM’s) executive for the party’s internal election on September 16, can do so during the period August 13 to 17, says Finance Minister Colm Imbert.

In making the announcement at yesterday’s post-general council news conference at Balisier House, Port of Spain, Imbert said as far as he was aware, nobody has expressed any interest in contesting any of the positions on offer including that of political leader.

“I am not aware that anybody has expressed an interest in any positions except, of course, we would expect our political leader to contest the leadership of the party. That goes without saying," he told reporters. “But I am not aware that anybody else has expressed any interest in any of the positions at this point in time.”

Saying the party had finalised arrangements for its internal election, Imbert reiterated all positions would be up for grabs.

“We have finalised the final list of voters and all arrangements are now in place for the internal elections and all positions, from political leader down, will be contested in September.”

Imbert also said a thorough post mortem of the party’s performance in last Monday’s local government by-election would soon be undertaken. The PNM won the Belmont East seat but narrowly lost the Barataria seat to the United National Congress.

“We will be doing a full post-mortem on the Barataria and Belmont East local government by-election soon. So, we did not go into any great detail with respect to our views on what occured in those two by-elections.” He said the PNM’s Annual Sports and Family Day would be held on August 5, at the Edinburgh 500 Recreation Ground in Chaguanas.