Rowley unbothered by PNM election concerns

POLITICAL leader of the People’s National Movement Dr Keith Rowley defended the party’s electoral process after one of his rivals questioned its validity ahead of its internal elections.

Rowley will be challenged by Karen Nunez-Tesheira, Junior Barrack and Ronald Boynes for leadership of the party in a three-day voting process on November 26 and 27 and December 4.

Last week, Nunez-Tesheira wrote to the elections supervisory committee (ESC) chairman, Anthony Roberts, about her concerns over the three-day electoral voting process.

The letter said the process itself adds “a layer of unnecessary complexity...and more particularly, an opportunity for ill-intentioned persons to tamper with the boxes during what amounts to be a nine-day hiatus.”

She called for the committee to revert to a one-day voting process and to have all the voting information available as early as possible to all members.

Roberts told Newsday on Thursday that while the ESC is aware of some details of her concerns through media reports, he is yet to receive a formal complaint from Nunez-Tesheira. He said, "Individual candidates cannot determine the format of the elections but I have not received any letter, so I cannot comment on it."

At the 49th constituency conference in his Diego Martin West constuency, at the Diego Martin Community Centre on Wednesday night, Rowley dismissed Nunez-Tesheira's reasonings for reverting to the old voting process.

He said, “We have made some significant progress, but the conversation from those who cannot reasonably attack the actions we have taken –they spend more time attacking the persons and personalities involved.

“There is one character who is asking to lead you. And when asked ‘What is the reason you think you want to intervene at this time?' Well, I think the prime minister is crude. I think the way that the prime minister treats people in the country...and I think the prime minister doesn’t like women.’”

"I would tell you something: in a difficult period, the one thing this prime minister and his Cabinet didn’t do was take a single dollar away from any person in the country deemed to be relying on the State for social support.”

He said despite financial constraints caused by economic challenges, the government he has led for the last seven years has given citizens some “breathing space.”

He cautioned members, “It is important what happens in an election, whether it is local or internal, whether it is a PNM election for leadership or a national election – elections have consequences. We go to the convention on December 4. You members will have a vote, and you have options.”

Rowley also responded to criticism of his leadership style.

“One of the criticisms that I face is that they don’t like the way I run the party because ‘democracy doesn’t exist in the party.’ So even before the election bell ring, certain people start querying the elections system.”

He smirked and asked the audience, “Do you know what that means?”

He defended the changes to the voting process, adding that every adjustment made since he had been elected was to ensure greater democracy.

“When I came in, the term of political leader was five years; it was reduced to four years. The screening committee was only required to assist the political leader; we changed that by convention to give the members of the screening committee original authority of members not to assist the political leader, but to vote in their own right.

“Most importantly, we didn’t allow 800 delegates to choose who your leader is – a party with tens of thousands of members...It was under my stewardship that one-man-one-vote was introduced into the elections in the PNM.

“So when you go to the polls, either early in the week or at the convention, every single member who wished to participate in choosing the leader of this party has a vote.

"But use it wisely. When you hear other characters talking about democracy in the PNM, you tell them to go put that where the monkey put the nuts because they never want to acknowledge progress or anything good, or share what we did (that was) positive. They always have something negative, even if it sounds foolish.”